Top 5 South African Test spinners of all time

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Cyril
Cyril Vincent (seated, second from left)

Nowadays, South Africa is famed for having produced some of the great fast bowlers of the modern game and over the past two decades, the team has hardly ever been hugely dependent on the expertise of a spinner.

However, it is also important to point out that the team has almost always played a spinner in the side, irrespective of the venue.

On the other hand, before South African cricket was shunned in the era of apartheid, they produced plenty of great spinners and in fact, back in the day, they had even visited England with an attack consisting of three spin bowlers.

The modern history of the team may be different but South Africa have had their fair share of good spin bowlers in the past.

Here is a look at 5 of the best spin bowlers to have represented South Africa in Test cricket.

5 Cyril Vincent

Cyril Leverton Vincent played for South Africa in 25 Test matches between the years 1927 and 1935 and during that period, he emerged as one of the world's most effective spin bowlers.

Vincent was a left-arm orthodox spinner and troubled some of the best batsmen in the world with his discipline, accuracy and the ability to plug away tirelessly in order to induce a mistake from the batsmen.

In addition to this, in an age when many Test matches used to be 'timeless' in nature, Vincent had the wherewithal to bowl for long periods of time and that was also one of the reasons he was regarded so highly.

Vincent picked up 84 wickets in the 25 Test matches in which he turned out for South Africa and recorded an average of 31.32.

4 Aubrey Faulkner

Aubrey Out

Port Elizabeth-born Aubrey Faulkner was one of the finest exponents of the leg break and googly in the pre World War 1 era and bamboozled almost all opponents who came up against his guiles.

Faulkner made his Test debut for South Africa in 1906 against England at Johannesburg and right from that time, he displayed his ability to turn the ball both ways without much of a change in his action.

In 25 Test matches, he picked up 82 wickets at an average of 26.58 and an excellent strike rate of only 51.5. Faulkner was one of the earliest bowlers to have in cricket to have mastered the googly, and his accuracy coupled with his skill at flighting the ball always kept the batsmen second-guessing his next move.

On the other hand, he could also bowl a vicious yorker that often caught batsmen on the wrong foot.

3 Nicky Boje

South Africa v Australia 2nd Test Day Three
Nicky Boje

Nicky Boje was South Africa's frontline spinner in Test cricket for the majority of his career, that lasted around a decade and was the architect of some famous wins for the team in the subcontinent. Boje had a classical left-arm orthodox spinner's action but had a pronounced jump in the delivery stride that seemingly helped him to get into his rhythm. He might not have had many varieties up his sleeve but he could turn the ball on most surfaces and was relentless in his accuracy, which fetched him 100 wickets in 42 Test matches at an average of 42.65. It needs to be remembered that he was often used as a restrictive option but when there was any assistance from the pitch, he turned into South Africa's strike bowler and the wins in India and Sri Lanka in 2000 owed much to his bowling. He remains one of the best spinners to have played for South Africa.

2 Paul Adams

Paul Adams of South Africa bowls
Paul Adams

When England toured South Africa in 1995-96, they not only had to face the might of the hosts' fast bowling arsenal but that of a spinner, whose bowling action so confounded them that they looked clueless against him most times.

Paul Adams' bowling action, described as a 'frog in a blender', was a bit of a freak and his action helped him in being practically a left arm off spinner by bowling googlies.

While the novelty of his bowling action brought him plenty of wickets in the initial year of his career, he continued to be South Africa's lead spinner in the years to come.

He played for around 9 years and played 45 Test matches, during the course of which he picked up 134 wickets at an average of 32.87. Adams remains one of the most successful spinners in South Africa's history and he is certainly one of their best ever.

1 Hugh Tayfield

Tayfield At The Oval
Tayfield At The Oval

The right arm off-spinner played between the years 1949 and 1960 and is often regarded as not only South Africa's greatest ever spin bowler, but also one of the greatest off-spinners to have ever played Test cricket.

Although Hugh Tayfield was not a huge spinner of the ball, he relied on his accuracy, his variations and the right amount of turn to cause trouble for most batsmen. During the course of his distinguished international career, Tayfield featured in 37 Test matches and picked up 170 wickets at an excellent average of 25.91.

What set him apart from many other off-spinners was his intelligence as a bowler and he was known to keep the cover region vacant in order to tempt the batsmen into playing against the turn. In addition to the classic off-spinner, Tayfield also bowled the floater equally expertly and foxed many batsmen as the ball drifted away from the stumps.

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Edited by Anuradha Santhanam