Hey jig were you watching cricket on tv on that jar shot? If so what the heck is a googlie?
Alright, so... In cricket the bowler (pitcher in baseball) wants to get the batter out. There are a few ways of doing this but for the most part the batter either has to hit the ball in the air and have it caught (like baseball) OR they have their wicket (the wooden stumps behind the batter) knocked down. These are sorta the main ways the batter gets out. There's others but they don't matter for this aspect.
Now, the bowler is allowed to bowl the ball in the air (like in baseball), But they hardly ever bowl so it does not bounce on the wicket (not only used to describe the stumps but also the dirt patch between the batters). In other words the ball almost always bounces once before getting to the batter.
There are different kind of bowlers, just like there are different kinds of pitchers in baseball. There are 'fast' bowlers and 'spin' bowlers. Both have sub-catagories as well. For out conversation we are only focusing on the 'spinners'. These guys are not the big strong tall men that are fast bowlers, rather they are tricky and have a 'wicked' wrist and arm action that makes the ball spin like crazy. This spin matters so much more in cricket than in baseball, because in baseball all you have are the stiching working against air resistance to tr and get the ball to 'turn'. In cricket the ball has a raised seam going around the 'equator'. This seam is maybe 1/8 inch off the ball, so when you spin the ball and get that seam to hit the ground, that ball is going to change diretion like you wouldn't beleive.
Alright so a Googly... this is a special ball (pitch) that 'leg-spinners' bowl. A 'leg spinner' is a spin bowler that has a normal delivery that 'turns left' on impact. They are called 'leg spinners' because when they are bowling to a right handed batsmen most of the balls they bowl will 'break' or 'turn' from the 'leg side' to the 'off side' or from the RH batsmens backside to his frontside. A Googly is when these 'leg spinners' throw the ball so that instead of turning away from the batter, it turn into the batter. This is acheived by cocking the wrist so that you are throwing the same ball as the regular leg break, but you release it oppositely making the spin the other direction. So it is like a change up in baseball. The ball looks like it is being bowled normally, same arm angle, arm speed, ball position in hand, same run up, release point... only difference is that the ball is coming out opposite.
There is also something relatively new called a 'doosra' (hindi term). This is the 'off spinners' version of a googly. The off spinners usually throw balls that spin into the batsmen, but they turn their wrist so that the back of their hand is toward the batsmen when they release, the ball spins opposite from normal and catches the batter off guard (hopefully).
The point of the google is this. The 'leg bowler' for the most part is trying to get the ball to spin 'away' from the batter. He is trying to get the batter to swing at the ball and basically foul tip it to someone. The batter will be looking for each ball to be delivered in front of him... when the googly comes, if the batter doesn't recognize it, he will step to swing at the ball expected a few feet in front of him, but the ball will have turned 'into' the batter after the bounce, so while the batters bat is out where the ball is expected.... there is nothing protecting the stumps..... and if the googly is a good one, the ball bounces misses the bat and batsman and goes directly on to knock the stumps.
There you go. It's a beautiful game (test cricket at least). But that's another lecture.
Thanks for the interest and for letting me share here.