Reverse swing is the talk of the town
After England's amazing comeback in the last two Tests, given the hiding they received in the first one at Lords, the unanimous opinion on the cause for this resurgence has been reverse swing. The story goes that Sarfraz Nawaz of Pakistan was the first to discover this skill. He then passed it on to Imran, who in turn taught it to his best finds - Wasim and Waqar. Simon Jones then learnt the art from Waqar while he was at Glamorgan. And now, he has passed it on to Flintoff. Waqar has even come out in the open now stating that what the English called "ball tampering" during his and Akram's heyday, is now being glorified as reverse swing :-)
Anyway, here is an article explaining the basics of swing and reverse-swing. Though the article does not have any cool animations to illustrate the phenomenon, it does a decent job. Reverse swing requires the ball to lose its shine and supposedly, this usually happens by the 50th over or so. But, with Harmison and Flintoff banging the ball in hard, this has happened by the 20th over itself! (I have read other outrageous claims that the England fielders throwing it in to the keeper on one bounce from the deep has also helped this cause, but I think that's rubbish!).
The fourth Test at Trent Bridge begins on Thursday, and it seems like an eternity since the one at Old Trafford ended! I just can't wait :) Gillespie is clearly out of the Aussie XI and the tussle is between Kasprowicz and Tait for the same spot. Let us see if the Aussies blood the youngster. I have been meaning to write a post on the state of Indian cricket for quite some time now. Sadly, my reduced online hours and increased workload have proved to be an obstacle. Hopefully I will be able to cross the hurdle soon. Meanwhile, sorry for the reduced frequency of posts.
Cheers,
Harsha
posted by Harsha V. Madhyastha @ 1:58 PM
6 Comments:
Nice article Harsha!
Ok, so what I got from this article and some others is that the ball swings in this air if one side is rough and the other smooth. And the ball moves towards the rough side because air moves faster there.
In the initial and middle overs the seam acts as the rough side and hence if seam points towards the slips the bowler gets outswing otherwise inswing. Also, in normal circumstances (i.e., when no reverse swing), the players rough one side up and keep other shiny and the rough side is on the same side of the seam (just to get more swing). In totality, if the batsman looks at the direction of the seam when the ball is delivered, he can know which direction the ball will swing. Obviously, he won't know how much it is going to swing and whether late or early.
However, when the ball gets so roughed up (i.e, one side of it)that it is rougher than the seam then the ball moves in the side of the rough even if the seam is on the other side. Hence, now the batsman has to look for the shiny and rough surfaces instead of the seam and in fact the batsman can be fooled if he looks just at the seam. Hence, the name 'reverse' swing. Also, bowlers are good at hiding the rough/shiny surfaces. You can look at Flintoff's runup and you can easily see that he hides the seam using his big hand.
Also, one more funda is that when doing normal swing the slower you bowl the more swing you can generate. If you have seen Tendulkar/Mark Ealham etc bowl you will know what I am saying here. However, to get reverse swing the article mentions that you need to have speeds of 80+. And, hence a club level bowler won't be able to learn the art easily. Well, I didn't get this funda.
That's all I could understand reverse swing. If anyone got anything more out of the article do post it. I am really curious about reverse swing especially why the Aussies haven't been able to reverse it.
On a completely different note, the teams for the SuperSeries have been announced.
http://content.cricinfo.com/superseries/content/story/216841.html
Obviously, everyone will have their own opinions, but personally I was disappointed to see Dravid being excluded from the one day squad and Sehwag being chosen ahead of him especially when Gibbs was also selected.
A notable omission (i.e, one who wasn't selected for one-dayers/tests): Inzamam
I remember Sunil Gavaskar or Geoff Boycott mentioning in an interview that all this talk about batsmen being able to see the shiny side or exactly determine the direction of movement from the wrist position of the bowler at the time of delivery was a whole load of rubbish ..
Basically I think their argument is that its the exaggerated late movement that causes problems, not the fact that the batsmen is fooled by which side of the ball is facing towards the slips
Another general funda is that for effective reverse swing the ball is obviously much fuller .. normal swing bowlers usually bowl short of driving / good length
More on the swing/ball tampering funda: I remember three incidents
1. paki bowlers picking the seam wit h bottle caps
2. theres a famous vaseline test where the english bowlers used to have vaseline in their pockets to get amazing swing -- called the "vaseline test"
3. atherton's famous sawdust/sand rubbing incident
Yes, I too have read that the key issue with reverse swing is the fact that the swing occurs pretty late. Justin Langer claimed the main problem a batsman faces is that he can no longer follow his instincts. He says normally the batsman can just look at the ball coming out of the bowler's hand and figure out what he must be ready for and essentially straight away choose the stroke to play based on the line and length he figures out. However, now, the batsman has to wait till pretty late to make a decision and so, this hinders natural strokemakers.
Anyway, I fear that all the talk going around might just get to the heads of the English bowlers and they might think that they just need to show up to get the Aussie batsmen out. Hopefully they retain their judgement amidst the hype.
nice try: I agree, the key to reverse swing is the late (and exaggerated) movement. But, the late movement is critical for normal outswingers also. If you compare the deliveries of Kapil Dev and Agarkar you will know what I mean. And, I am surprised Boycott said that. I thought it was a commonly accepted fact that batsmen can figure out the (supposed) swing by looking at the seam position.
Harsha: I agree there. Eng bowlers have bowled reverse swing well. But, they should also understand that Warne and Ponting played them without too much trouble. And so, others can also adapt.
whoever it was who made the statement it was made in a broader context reacting with respect to the hype being made out in the media about the ability of batsmen to read the delivery from the bowler's wrist/seam position (spin/swing) -- i sort of agree that you must have incredible eyesight and discerning ability to judge the bowler's wrist position at the time of delivery
there was also an interesting comment i read somewhere that very rarely in recent times have the aussies or any opposition for that matter faced a pace attack with three bowlers consistently hitting or capable of hitting 90mph -- that may be a crucial factor in the aussie debacle
any comments on the Zimbabwe carnage. Or is it pointless commenting about them. The stage is set for another upheaval.
Zim beats Ind in a thriller :(
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