A leg cutter is a type of delivery

Delivery (cricket)

A delivery or ball in cricket is a single action of bowling a cricket ball towards the batsman.During play of the game, a member of the fielding team is designated as the bowler, and bowls deliveries towards the batsman...

 in the sport

Sport

A Sport is all forms of physical activity which, through casual or organised participation, aim to use, maintain or improve physical fitness and provide entertainment to participants. Sport may be competitive, where a winner or winners can be identified by objective means, and may require a degree...

 of cricket

Cricket

Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of 11 players on an oval-shaped field, at the centre of which is a rectangular 22-yard long pitch. One team bats, trying to score as many runs as possible while the other team bowls and fields, trying to dismiss the batsmen and thus limit the...

. It is bowled

Bowling (cricket)

In the sport of cricket, bowling is the action of propelling the ball toward the wicket defended by a batsman. A player skilled at bowling is called a bowler; a bowler who is also a competent batsman is known as an all-rounder...

 by fast bowlers

Fast bowling

Fast bowling, sometimes known as pace bowling, is one of the two main approaches to bowling in the sport of cricket. The other is spin bowling...

.

A bowler releases a normal fast delivery with the wrist locked in position and the first two fingers positioned on top of the cricket ball

Cricket ball

A cricket ball is a hard, solid leather ball used to play cricket. Constructed of cork and leather, a cricket ball is heavily regulated by cricket law at first class level...

, giving it spin about a horizontal axis perpendicular to the length of the pitch

Cricket pitch

In the game of cricket, the cricket pitch consists of the central strip of the cricket field between the wickets - 1 chain or 22 yards long and 10 feet wide. The surface is very flat and normally covered with extremely short grass though this grass is soon removed by wear at the ends of the...

. For a leg cutter, a right-handed bowler pulls his fingers down the left side of the ball (from his viewpoint), rolling the ball out of his hand over the little finger, in an action similar to bowling a leg break

Leg break

A leg break is a type of delivery in the sport of cricket. A delivery of a right-handed leg spin bowler. Leg breaks are also colloquially known as leggies or wrist spinners, as the wrist is the body part which is primarily used to impart spin on the ball, as opposed to the fingers in the case of...

, only at higher speed. This changes the axis of spin to make it more like a leg break, which makes the ball deviate to the left when it bounces on the pitch. From a right-handed batsman's point of view, this deviation is to the right, or from the leg side

Leg side

The leg side, or on side, is defined to be a particular half of the field used to play the sport of cricket.From the point of view of a right-handed batsman facing the bowler, it is the left hand side of the cricket field...

 towards the off side. This deviation is known as cut, and the delivery is called a leg cutter because it moves away from the leg side.

What differentiates a genuine leg cutter from a seam-up delivery that simply moves away off the seam is that it is deliberately bowled.

Leg cutters do not turn as sharply as leg breaks bowled by a leg spin

Leg spin

Leg spin is a type of spin bowling in the sport of cricket. A leg spinner bowls right-arm with a wrist spin action, causing the ball to spin from right to left in the cricket pitch, at the point of delivery. When the ball bounces, the spin causes the ball to deviate sharply from right to left, that...

 bowler, but at the speed of a fast bowler even a tiny deviation can cause difficulties for the batsman. If he is not quick enough to react to the movement, the batsman can edge the ball off the outside edge of his bat

Cricket bat

A cricket bat is a specialised piece of equipment used by batsmen in the sport of cricket to hit the ball. It is usually made of willow wood. Its use is first mentioned in 1624....

, offering a catch to the wicket-keeper

Wicket-keeper

The wicket-keeper in the sport of cricket is the player on the fielding side who stands behind the wicket or stumps being guarded by the batsman currently on strike...

 or slips

Slip (cricket)

In the sport of cricket, a slip fielder is placed behind the batsman on the off side of the field. They are placed with the aim of catching an edged ball which is beyond the wicket-keeper's reach. Many teams employ two or three slips...

 fielders.

A fast bowler will typically use the leg cutter as a variation ball as it is most effective when it surprises the batsman. The leg cutter action can also produce a significantly slower ball with little obvious change in the bowler's arm speed, making the delivery doubly deceptive. On the other hand, the lack of pace of the delivery may be disadvantageous. Former Australian captain Ian Chappell

Ian Chappell

Ian Michael Chappell is a former cricketer who played for South Australia and Australia. He captained Australia between 1971 and 1975 before taking a central role in the breakaway World Series Cricket organisation...

 described Jeff Thomson

Jeff Thomson

Jeffrey Robert Thomson is a former Australian cricketer. Known as "Thommo", he was one of the fastest bowlers ever to play Test cricket and was the opening partner of fellow fast bowler Dennis Lillee; their combination was one of the most fearsome in Test cricket history...

's leg cutter thus: "He had this leg cutter, and you were usually pretty happy to see it, because it meant that the ball wasn't coming at your head at 95 miles an hour."

The most prominent users of leg cutter include Alec Bedser

Alec Bedser

Sir Alec Victor Bedser, CBE was a professional English cricketer. He was the chairman of selectors for the English national cricket team, and the president of Surrey County Cricket Club...

, Fazal Mahmood

Fazal Mahmood

Fazal Mahmood was a Pakistani cricketer, regarded as the finest pace bowler of his country's early years. He played in 34 Test matches and took 139 wickets at a bowling average of 24.70...

 and of late Terry Alderman

Terry Alderman

Terence Michael Alderman is a former Australian cricketer.He began his first-class career in 1974 with Western Australia in the Sheffield Shield and came to international prominence when he was chosen for the Australian national team to tour England in 1981...

, Carl Rackemann

Carl Rackemann

Carl Gray Rackemann OAM , born in Wondai, Queensland, is a former Queensland and Australian cricketer. He was a fast bowler in 12 Tests, 52 ODIs and 167 first-class cricket matches in a career spanning 1979–80 to 1995–96....

 and Venkatesh Prasad

Venkatesh Prasad

Bapu Krishnarao Venkatesh Prasad is a former Indian cricketer. He is the bowling coach for Royal Challengers Bangalore in the Indian Premier League, having formerly performed the same role for the Indian cricket team from 2007 to 2009. He made his debut in 1996...

.

Leg cutters are much more frequently seen in indoor cricket

Indoor cricket

Indoor cricket is a variant of and shares many basic concepts with cricket. The game is most often played between two teams each consisting of eight players, in matches featuring two innings of sixteen 7-ball overs each...

as the physical arena in which the game is played limits the pace at which bowlers can bowl, and hence they must use other techniques to prevent the batsmen from scoring.