“Fancy being done by a bloody Chinaman,” said 1930s English batsman Walter Robins in a jibe that today would have required a disciplinary hearing. It was Mathew’s bread-and-butter delivery. The stock ball. Pitching outside off and cutting into the batsman. Ellis Achong, a West Indian of Chinese descent, dismissed Robins with one such delivery, and sparked both the outburst and the term.

A ball turning in from a left-arm bowler is not considered as dangerous as one that turns away. The logic being that it is not difficult to combat something that moves towards you. Mathew bowled two variations of the chinaman. One with cocked wrist and one with rolling fingers. He would drift it to wide outside off, giving it the appearance of a wayward delivery, and then rip it in at awkward angles.

The chinaman accounted for most of Mathew’s early wickets. And remained his stock delivery throughout his career. Proving that it can be difficult to combat something that moves towards you, if it arrives unexpectedly.