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Swing bowling is a bowling technique in cricket, in which the ball is made to curve through the air. This is in the hope that the change in the ball's flight path will deceive the batter and cause them to play the ball incorrectly. A bowler who uses this technique is called a swing bowler.[1] Swing bowling is generally classed as a type of fast bowling.
A swing bowling delivery is either an inswinger, where the ball curves in towards the batter, or an outswinger, where the ball curves away from the batter. A swing bowler often bowls a mixture of inswingers and outswingers (as well as other non-swinging types of delivery), by changing how they hold the ball.
To make the ball swing, a bowling side continually polishes one side of the ball by applying sweat to it, as well as rubbing it against their clothing to shine it, while allowing the opposite side to become gradually more rough through the course of play. Conventional swing, also called orthodox swing, occurs when the ball is relatively new, before the shiny side becomes worn over the course of play.[2][3] The airflow over the rough and shiny sides cause it to move in flight towards the rough side and away from the shiny side. Swing bowlers often use a subtly altered grip on the ball to accentuate this effect. Reverse swing is when it swings in the opposite direction - towards the shiny side. This occurs as the ball becomes more worn, and is rarer.
As swing bowling is heavily dependent on the condition of the ball, a number of ball tampering controversies have been related to it. This is where teams have allegedly tried to alter the wear of the ball illegally using materials such as sandpaper, to produce additional swing. Examples of such incidents are the 2006 ball-tampering controversy and the 2018 Australian ball-tampering scandal.
- ^ Wright, Ben (12 July 2024). "Mike Brearley: Jimmy Anderson is the best swing bowler ever but I could have got more out of him". Daily Telegraph. Retrieved 10 November 2024.
- ^ "Swing and seam bowling". BBC SPORT. 19 August 2005. Retrieved 26 November 2024.
Batsmen are used to facing orthodox swing - which happens when the ball is still relatively hard and new in the first 10 to 15 overs. However, over the past 20 years fast bowlers have developed a new method of making the ball move in the air with the older ball called 'reverse swing'.
- ^ "Cricket's dark art of swing bowling". Leeds Beckett University. 27 March 2018. Retrieved 26 November 2024.
Swing bowling essentially involves being able to change the direction of the ball in mid-air. There are two types of swing to explore here: "conventional" and "reverse" swing.