A ball in cricket that is difficult to hit because it has been made to go in a different direction from the one that the batsman is expecting.
Googly refers to a style of bowling in cricket whereby the delivery of the cricket ball is spun from the off side to the batsman’s leg in order to deceive the batsman. A googly is delivered by a leg-break bowler from the back of the hand, with the wrist pointed 180 degrees to the ground in order to achieve spin while remaining undetected. The bowled ball will swerve in one direction and break in the other when executed correctly. The googly is a technique which is highly difficult for the batsman to detect due to the surreptitious change of wrist action which results in the deceptive spin on the ball. As such, it is a bowling technique which is highly effective in taking wickets from the opponent. It is most commonly used as a surprise and so is a technique used infrequently for optimal results.
The term is used as an idiom with the phrase to bowl someone a googly. This refers to the act of asking an unexpected question which is particularly underhanded, requiring a quick reaction.
googly
a ball in cricket that is difficult to hit because it has been made to go in a different direction from the one that the batsman is expecting
