Your Cricket General Bowling Thread

tech.007

Club Cricketer
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May 16, 2007
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India
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hi i have started this thread for all the members interested in swing bowling
everybody is free to post the tactics and basic information about swing reverse swing bowling.
i start with some general information from wikipedia

The essence of swing bowling is to get the cricket ball to deviate sideways as it moves through the air towards or away from the batsman. In order to do this, the bowler makes use of four factors:

* The raised seam of the cricket ball
* Asymmetry in the ball caused by uneven wear of its surface
* The speed of the delivery
* The bowler's action

The asymmetry of the ball is encouraged by the constant polishing of one side of the ball by members of the fielding team, while allowing the opposite side to deteriorate through wear and tear. Over time, this produces a marked difference in the aerodynamic properties of the two sides.

At speeds around 80 mph (around 130 km/h), the airflow around the ball is in transition between smooth, or laminar flow, and turbulent flow. At speeds of 90 mph (around 145 km/h) and above, all the flow is turbulent. A medium-pace bowler, working at 75 to 80 mph (around 120 to 130 km/h), takes advantage of this. In this critical region, the raised seam and other minor imperfections in the ball's surface can induce turbulence while air flowing over other parts of the ball remains laminar. Turbulent air separates from the surface of the ball later than laminar flow air, so that the separation point moves to the back of the ball on the turbulent side. On the laminar flow side it remains towards the front. The result is a net force in the direction of the turbulent side.

Thus by keeping the seam and roughness to one side, the bowler induces the ball to swing in that direction. Skilled bowlers can even make a ball swing one way, and then 'break' the other way upon bouncing, with an off cutter or leg cutter hand action.

The swing of a cricket ball is not caused by the Magnus effect, which gives rise to a force perpendicular to the axis of rotation (in this case up or down). The deviation of a swinging cricket ball is parallel to the axis of its rotation.


Typically, a swing bowler aligns the seam and the sides of the ball to reinforce the swing effect. This can be done in two ways:

* Outswinger: By aligning the seam to the left towards the slips and placing the roughened side of the ball on the left, the ball will swing to the left. To a right-handed batsman, this results in the ball moving away to the off side while in flight, usually outwards from his body.
* Inswinger: By aligning the seam to the right and placing the roughened side of the ball on the right and towards leg slip, the ball will swing to the right. To a right-handed batsman, this results in the ball moving in to the leg side while in flight, usually inwards towards his body.

The curvature of swing deliveries can make them difficult for a batsman to hit with his bat. Typically, bowlers more commonly bowl outswingers, as they tend to move away from the batsman, meaning he has to "chase" the ball in order to hit it. Hitting away from the batsman's body is dangerous, as it leaves a gap between the bat and body through which the ball may travel to hit the wicket. Also, if the batsman misjudges the amount of swing, he can hit the ball with an edge of the bat. An inside edge can ricochet on to the wicket, resulting in him being out bowled, while an outside edge can fly to the wicket-keeper or slip fielders for a catch.

An inswinger presents relatively fewer dangers to the batsman, but can result in bowled or leg before wicket dismissals if the batsman misjudges the swing on the ball.

An inswinger combined with a yorker can be especially difficult for the batsman to defend against, especially if used as a surprise delivery after a sequence of outswingers.

It is a common belief amongst both players and fans that balls swing more in humid weather conditions, although no objective research exists to bear this out. These days there is a distinct lack of left-arm swing bowlers in the game. One of the most famous left-arm bowlers is Sri Lanka's Chaminda Vaas.



Pioneers and notable practitioners of reverse swing have mostly been Pakistani fast bowlers. Former Pakistan international Sarfraz Nawaz was the founder of reverse swing during the late 1970s, and he passed his knowledge on to former team-mate Imran Khan[[1], who in turn taught the duo of Wasim Akram and Waqar Younis. The English pair of Andrew Flintoff and Simon Jones are also well known for the ability to reverse swing the ball. Waqar Younis taught Jones, his then Glamorgan team mate, the skill, who went on to instruct Flintoff. [2]

In the early days of reverse swing, Pakistani bowlers were suspected of ball tampering to achieve the conditions of the ball that allow reverse swing, but today they are considered to simply have been ahead of their time.[citation needed] Normal swing occurs mostly when the ball is fairly new. As it wears more, the aerodynamics of the asymmetry change and it is more difficult to extract a large amount of swing.

When the ball becomes very old—around 40 or more overs old, it can begin to swing towards the polished side rather than the rough side. This is known as reverse swing (Andrew Flintoff and Simon Jones have been known to produce reverse swing in balls as young as 15 overs old [3]). In essence, both sides have turbulent flow, but here the seam causes the airflow to separate earlier on one side. The result is always a swing to the side with the later separation, so the swing is away from the seam. (See External Links.)

Reverse swing is difficult to achieve consistently, as it relies on uneven wear of the ball, tends to occur mostly in hot, dry weather conditions, and requires bowling at high speed. Normal swing can be achieved at relatively moderate bowling speeds, but only the fastest bowlers can regularly produce reverse swing.

Reverse swing tends to be stronger than normal swing, and to occur late in the ball's trajectory. This gives it a very different character to normal swing, and because batsmen experience it less often they generally find it much more difficult to defend against. It is also possible for a ball to swing normally in its early flight, and then to reverse as it approaches the batsman, giving its trajectory an S-shape through the air.


Controversy regarding reverse swing has never left modern cricket, as the Pakistani team was accused of ball tampering by the controversial Australian umpire Darrell Hair during the fourth test against England in 2006 when the ball began to reverse swing after the 50th over. His co-umpire Billy Doctrove fully supported him in this action. A hearing subsequently found that there was no sufficient evidence to convict anyone of ball tampering.
 

Simbazz

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I find being a LM bowler that making my bowling arm a little wider, so my arm doesnt brush me ear, tends to aid swing, dont know why. I can only seem to bowl outswing (to the left hander, so inswing to the right) but when it catches a bit of swing, or the ball is swinging like a banana i can get some inswing (Outswing to the right hander)

Im much better sticking to spin :rolleyes:
 

King Pietersen

ICC Board Member
Joined
Nov 15, 2006
Location
Manchester
I dont know how i do it, but i seem to get the ball swinging. I've only been playing since January but i would see myself as a swing bowler already. Towards the end of the innings i seem to get alot of swing, but it tends to swing in instead of my normal away swing. I bowl right arm medium btw.
 

Simbazz

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I dont know how i do it, but i seem to get the ball swinging. I've only been playing since January but i would see myself as a swing bowler already. Towards the end of the innings i seem to get alot of swing, but it tends to swing in instead of my normal away swing. I bowl right arm medium btw.

Trust me, if you have inswing sorted, to the righthander, then outswing is a matter of one session just getting your finger and release correct to aid outswing, Inswing is muchos harder!
 

tech.007

Club Cricketer
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the chances of the ball outswining are much more then inswinging and also there are handful of bowlers who can inswing the ball.
 

Almost_Austwick

International Captain
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Jul 28, 2005
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The natural hand position when bowling tends to aid away swing which is why its more common than in-swing (for RH).

If you find that you're not getting as much swing as you think you should be, it's worth slightly opening or closing your fingers (index and middle) around the seam.

To help this thread along I'll get some pictures up later showing the hand positions for swinging the ball as well as some other tips.
 

rabeta

News Team Member
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Nov 21, 2006
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I get natural inswing, probably because I am a straight on action, with an action similar to say the McGrath's and Munaf Patel's, and they too do not get much outswing. Any tips for how I could get the ball to move away from the right-handers?
 

Almost_Austwick

International Captain
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You could try to get the ball to cut away as that coupled with an inward motion could be deadly.
 

rabeta

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You could try to get the ball to cut away as that coupled with an inward motion could be deadly.

Bowled that kind of delivery yesterday, bit of in swing and then seamed away, trouble with that kind of delivery is that it is almost too good, as it will always pass the edge, unless it is on the stumps of course. Any tips on how to bowl that kind of delivery more often?
 

Almost_Austwick

International Captain
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As with anything it's down to practice and learning control. Glenn McGrath wasn't the bowler he was because it got extravagant movement but because he got just enough (about a bat widths) - and i'm sure that its because he worked on it.
 
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Almost_Austwick

International Captain
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Let’s take a look at the different grips that are used when trying to swing or cut the ball.

Out Swing
This will be a stock ball for many bowlers, as it will give rewards if bowled in the right areas.

outswing.jpg


As you can see from the above picture the seam should be slightly angled towards the direction you want to move the ball, so in this case towards the slips. Make sure it’s held firmly by the tips of the index and middle fingers with the thumb resting on the seam underneath. Another important area to consider is the wrist, which needs to remain strong all the way the delivery. The idea is to get the seam to remain straight and if the wrist is allowed to weaken it will cause the ball to wobble.

In swing

inswing2.gif


The difference here is that the ball is angled towards the batsman (RH). The index and middle fingers are again over the top of the seam although the thumb is slightly to the right of the seam (when view front on).

Once again the wrist should be firm during the build up to release but is then allowed to slightly weaken on release, so that the thumb is leading the way (or at least feels as though it is).

As mentioned above you need to point the seam in the direction you wish to move the ball but often you will need to play around with this to maximise the swing. Each ball is unique as are the conditions that the match is played in, some days it’s going to boomerang, others hardly move. Don’t be afraid to turn the seam further in one direction or even to bring it back straighter – it may be this experimenting that fools the batsman into getting a snick.

So you’ve played around the seam but the ball still isn’t moving, or you’re getting swing but it’s not bring wickets what else can you do? The answer is to add a good quality cutter to your repertoire, whether off or leg.

The basic grips are as below:

Off Cutter

offcut.jpg


The movement is caused by rolling your fingers over the ball on release.

offcut-rot.gif



This is how the ball should look on release (note: the hand should be more upright as I've rotated the original photo to show the seam position on release).

Leg Cut

legcut.jpg


Much the same as the off cut but a slightly different grip and you are of course ripping the ball the other way. In this action it's the middle finger doing the work, ripping the ball towards off stump.

leg-cut-rot.gif


The ball on release, note the seam rotation (again the hand will be more upright than this as this is only to demonstrate the rotation).

Both of these deliveries will take work in order to get them right but they're worth it and are a must for any seam bowler to have in their arsenal.



Photos courtesy of www.bbc.co.uk until I can replace them with my own.
 

sd92

International Coach
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Feb 26, 2005
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Cheers for those tips Tom, i will most certainly be using them in my game tomoro, and seeing how they work...
 

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