Your Cricket Swing explained

[ZoraxDoom]

The Science of Swing is explained by scientist Rabindra Mehta here.

Damn good article it is. Explains a hell lot. Didn't know Conventional and Reverse swing both require a rough and shiny side. Slower guys get conventional, and the quicker ones reverse. And bowling dobbly or searing pace with a straight seam gets contrast! Remarkable. SoJo got conventional and reverse swing, and Freddie just had contrast swing! Amazing stuff.

 

[BigCrickNan]

Wow, good article. It must be pretty hard to bowl a ball that doesn't swing now .

 

[ZoraxDoom]

It takes an angled seam and a speed of 80 MPH to accomplish it

 

[BlackCapForLife]

Thanks for that, great article, never knew some of that stuff.

 

[valvolux]

The thing that intruiges me about this contrast swing is that it is apparently just a matter of having the seam bolt upright....that it's the easiest type of swing to bowl, but relies 100% on the balls condition which seems to be the most difficult ingredient to get right. Simon Jones was swinging the ball with the seam bolt upright thus I can assume this was contrast swing...the jury is still out on how they managed to get the ball in the correct condition? I mean england have a number of bowlers who bowl at a similar pace with the seam upright...why hasn't it been swinging lately?

 

[aussie1st]

Massive bump I know but only just thought about getting a proper read into swing. I think the writer of that article got his swings mixed up. He mentioned Tait in the conventional swing section but according to Mehta, its not possible to swing the ball at 80mph which Tait was easily above. So really when guys like Tait, Lee, Bond, Aamer and Roach are swinging the new ball, it is actually reverse swing and not conventional swing.

Also there was an article from last years Ashes with a quick guide to the different swings and how overcast conditions don't have an effect. Nasa proves why cricket balls really swing - Times Online

For mind it must have some effect, else a bowler should be able to swing the ball in all conditions which doesn't happen. Malcolm Harris makes a good comment in this regard quoted below.

Living in Bangkok I play recreational golf in high humidity conditions. The ball when hit with the driver very obviously does not go as far as it does in uk. The heavy air slows the ball and it seems to fall out of the air and does not roll much, ie it does not have a parabolic flight with ground roll.
In the article the reasonable observation is that speed and swing are correlated. I would suggest in higher humidity conditions (cloud cover)the ball leaves the bowlers hand at normal speed but slows more quickly than normal in the moister air and then gets "late and exaggerated" swing as it reaches the speed where the air moving over the ball is disturbed and becomes turbulent for most effect. I would also suggest the rough side of the ball has the capability to trap minute amounts of water moisture thus increasing its weight on that side. The balls shape can also change considerably after a bit of a hammering, and this will also affect aero dynamics much more than rough and smooth sides I expect; more to do with lack of speed thro the air as noted above. As an ex (average!) bowler I do agree that conditions will play a role in positive thoughts, and can generate some extra application with the expectation that the ball will do a bit by itself. West Indian bowlers never had much of a reputation for pace with swing. This is considering swing rather than bounce moving off the seam. Is the air dry in the Caribbean?

 

[Aoun13]

Massive bump I know but only just thought about getting a proper read into swing. I think the writer of that article got his swings mixed up. He mentioned Tait in the conventional swing section but according to Mehta, its not possible to swing the ball at 80mph which Tait was easily above. So really when guys like Tait, Lee, Bond, Aamer and Roach are swinging the new ball, it is actually reverse swing and not conventional swing.

Also there was an article from last years Ashes with a quick guide to the different swings and how overcast conditions don't have an effect. Nasa proves why cricket balls really swing - Times Online

For mind it must have some effect, else a bowler should be able to swing the ball in all conditions which doesn't happen. Malcolm Harris makes a good comment in this regard quoted below.

Ball can't do reverse swing until it have one shiny and one rough surface,these bowlers are bowling conventional swing.

 

[aussie1st]

Which the ball becomes after a few overs. And from that link:

Reverse-swing works with the new ball only at high pace, of 90mph or more, but as one side roughens, the speed at which it will reverse drops.

And answer this

Also critical is speed. For conventional swing, the optimum pace is about 70mph and balls of above 80mph will not move at all; very fast bowlers must rely on reverse-swing. Dr Mehta thinks the radar used in the present series is exaggerating the pace of all bowlers.

Lee and Tait are well above 80mph so according to Dr Mehta its not possible for them to get conventional and he even said fast bowlers MUST rely on reverse swing.

 

[angryangy]

I think there's more to weather effects, but maybe not in the way you'd think. For one, the obvious, light. The less light, the harder the ball is to follow, so it makes sense that the perception of quick bowling is proportional to cloud cover. Secondly, clouds block direct, radiant heat; you can find that in hot bright sun, the surface temperature might be 45-50 degrees when the air temperature is only in the 30s. Why should that be important? Because that heat can cause rapid evaporation, which leads to the last point: clay absorbs moisture from the air. Humid, overcast weather, with a nice, even temperature, means more water in the pitch, especially if the pitch has been watered fresh.

So you might be thinking, isn't that just for seam movement? It's about ball conditioning. Like how you find some pitches start to cause reverse swing only after the surface has worn out a bit, when the pitch is more gentle on the ball helps to keep it prime to swing conventionally. If the pitch is really ripping through the ball, you'll lose the smoothness of the shiny side very quickly and that could lead to events like in the 2005 Ashes.

 

[TumTum]

^ You are right, but the Aussie batsmen have no idea on how to play reverse swing, because we tend to play on the front foot more. We are sometimes hopeless at adapting and very stubborn. Ponting in India is a good example.

 

[darthlewis1]

I've always had trouble fully understanding swing because everyone explains it differently.