Cricket / bowling

In previous part we talked about conventional swing bowling and today we will know more about swing bowling that works opposite to the conventional way, hence also called as reverse swing. Reverse swing doesn't and cannot happen early on when the ball is new, rather it can be achieved with an older ball that's well maintained i.e., it's rough on one side and shiny on the other. The team has to work very hard on the ball to keep the ball completely dry from the rough side and avoid any kind of sweat or anything wet on that side. While the shiny side needs to be shined continuously using the uniform and more importantly the saliva to wet it and make it heavier on that side. Reverse swing is easier to achieve than the conversation swing, provided the ball is maintained properly. There are not so many things one needs to take care of as in conventional swing. World cricket has seen a lot of reverse swing bowlers but one has to admit that it was only the Pakistan duo, Waqar Yunis and Wasim Akram, that used or rather performed the art of reverse swing the best. While Wasim Akram was better than Waqar with the new ball but Waqar was better than him with the old ball. Wasim was exceptional with the old ball too but Waqar was on another level and both of them together were lethal. Sanjay Manjreker in a video says that Wasim and Waqar were the best bowlers who were exceptional with both new and the old ball. If he had a choice to decide when to bat against them he would've liked to open the batting and face their conventional swing rather than reverse swing in the middle of the innings because they were unplayable, they were the best exponents of reverse swing. There are a few things that need to taken into consideration in order to be able to bowl reverse and I'm here mentioning them below: 1. The first and the most important thing for a side to achieve reverse swing is maintaining the ball properly. Early on the ball has to ve shined to get the conventional swing but once the ball starts getting older a side has to start taking more care of it to get it to reverse. The ball may hit the advertisement boards or any other hard things inside or around the ground and get scuffed up from one side, that side of the ball has to stay as dry as possible. Bowlers should avoid sweat of their hands absorb onto the dry side of the ball. While the other side, shiny side, of the ball needs to be fairly wet so that it's weight incr 2. So the ball is as you would like to have it and now you'd like it to talk. The second most important thing is pace. You need to have some gas in you to bowl 140-145 kmph. Bowling slow won't help you at all, you need some serious pace behind the ball to get it to reverse. Yes there can be some bowlers who can bowl reverse at 130kmph too but you can't beat the batsman with that pace. And at that pace a batsman won't be troubled at all. So, I think, for bowlers to get best results out of reverse swing they need to have some good pace. 3. Your action will be different from the normal or conventional (high arm) to a slightly lower arm. If a right handed batsman is facing you (a right arm bowler) keep the shiny side of the ball inside to get it coming into the batsman (opposite to conventional swing). Lower your arm a little bit, if you have a high arm action, to a slingu kind of action to get best results. Your wrists need not to be cocked. But the seam of the ball has to be straight. 4. To get the best results out of reverse swing you have to pitch the ball up, as full as you can. Try to get the batsman driving, because once he sees the ball up he will plant his front foot ahead and look to drive, that's when he will get into trouble. The ball will change the direction at the last moment and possibly miss his bat and hit his pad or stumps. But again as I said, you need to have good pace to best the batsman. That's all I can say about reverse swing and do comment whether you're helped or not. And please correct me if you find anything wrong in the explanation or in the post itself. Thanks!!!