Please explain the term reverse swing in cricket?

Answer 1

Reverse 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. 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.

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.

Notable practitioners of reverse swing have mostly been Pakistani fast bowlers. Sarfraz Nawaz is generally credited as the first bowler to have used reverse swing, and passed on his knowledge of the skill to Imran Khan, 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.

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]

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 not sufficient evidence to convict of ball tampering.

Answer 2

Firstly, swing bowling is getting the ball to swing towards the shiny/polished side of the ball. Generally it's used to swing away from the batsman, to attempt to get them to swing at a ball, and clip it to the wicket keeper, or a slip. Reverse swing is getting the ball to swing the opposite direction to the shiny side. I have no idea how it's done, but I seem to remember it being something to do with the weather conditions O.o Anyway, it basically confuses the batsman, who thinks the ball will swing the other way. Whether or not it won England the ashes? I have no idea. But hopefully they'll manage it again this year! ;-)

Answer 3

Reverse Swing is the art of swinging the ball contrary to how a conventionally swung ball moves in the air; i.e. movement away from the rough side. Many theories as to how this may occur. Usually happens with an older ball than conventional swing, but not always, atmospheric conditions and bowler skill also being important factors. It has been espoused that once the 'rough' side becomes extremely rough a similar effect to that of a dimpled golf ball may cause it to move more quickly through the air than the 'shiny' side of the ball.

Answer 4

Reverse Swing is a technique used for bowling in the sport of cricket developed by Sarfraz Nawaz of Pakistan in the 1970s. 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 ). 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.

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.

Notable practitioners of reverse swing have mostly been Pakistani fast bowlers. Sarfraz Nawaz is generally credited as the first bowler to have used reverse swing, and passed on his knowledge of the skill to Imran Khan, 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.

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.

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 not sufficient evidence to convict of ball tampering.

Answer 5

Reverse swing is when the ball swings in towards a right handed batsman rather than away from the batsman.

Answer 6

Reverse swing is the termanology used when a bowler bowl a bowl swing in both directions.