One might wonder how thick-skinned seedless oranges of Israel are related to cricket. The fruit we are talking about are famous in the city of Jaffa. This word has been used by commentators in cricket whenever a bowler delivers an unplayable and challenging delivery to the batter. It is still unknown why an excellent cricket delivery is compared to oranges.
Any bowler, be it a spinner, or a pacer has the ability to bowl a jaffa. It is also crucial to remember that not every delivery tagged as a jaffa yields a wicket for the bowler. It might simply beat the batter and can evidently suggest the batter’s struggles against that delivery. Apart from jaffa, the words zinger, pearl, peach, brute, stormer, snorter, beauty, cracker, and corker have been used to describe a jaffa.
There is no specific way to bowl a jaffa. The jaffa is a result of all the hours the bowler put in for honing their skills. Additionally, it is also noteworthy to mention that not every delivery where a batter is beaten is a jaffa. It might simply be a mistimed shot or a false shot selection that led the batter to be in trouble.
Apart from the delivery itself, jaffa is a term that is incredibly popular amongst the cricketing fraternity. There are shoe brands, tournaments, podcasts, cricket academies, that have been named jaffa.
In 2020, ESPN Cricinfo’s Cricket Monthly picked 20 nominations that were a list for the ‘Ball of the century’. Each event mentioned was a jaffa delivery and every ball resulted in the batter’s dismissal. Two classic examples of a jaffa is Shane Warne’s ball to get Mike Gatting’s wicket, or Ravichandran Ashwin’s ball to dismiss Hashim Amla.
