Swinging both ways

[haroon510]

i am surprised to see that very few people has mention asif who i think is the master of swing in bowlers playing currently.. i mean conterversy aside.. he deserve mentioning because of his talent and skills.. his inswingers are deathly and sometimes unplayable.. same goes with outswingers..
here is an example of his skills

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gej3KM2mcPA&feature=related

Asif against south africa.. brillian bowling.

YouTube - Brilliant Mohammad Asif

so for it is asif, zaheer and afew others..

from past Wasim Akram, Glen Mcgrath, waqar younis and afew others..

 

[zaremba]

i am surprised to see that very few people has mention asif who i think is the master of swing in bowlers playing currently.. i mean conterversy aside.. he deserve mentioning because of his talent and skills.. his inswingers are deathly and sometimes unplayable.. same goes with outswingers..
here is an example of his skills

YouTube - Muhammad Asif Wickets

Asif against south africa.. brillian bowling.

YouTube - Brilliant Mohammad Asif

so for it is asif, zaheer and afew others..

from past Wasim Akram, Glen Mcgrath, waqar younis and afew others..

I don't agree about Glenn McGrath - he wasn't really a swing bowler at all, although in his later years he began to bowl a reverse-swinging inswinger.

Waqar, from my recollection of him, only really bowled outswingers with the new ball, and inswingers with the old ball.

 

[social]

Simon Doull FTW.

Yep

Manoj Prabharkar was another who could hoop it both ways at will

However, Marshall was obviously the best as he could do everything that these guys did but at faaaaaaaaaaar higher pace

 

[Burgey]

Lillee swung the ball a fair bit in his early years, predominantly out, though he had a reasonable inswinger as well. Was a handy variation for him.

But mostly it was his cutters. I recall him bowling a series of leg cutters to Boycs around 79-80 for a few overs, with Boycs picking them and letting them go, before Lillee produced a perfect in-ducker that bowled Boycs middle and off, with his bat above his head. It was a wonderful piece of bowling, summed up the fast bowlers' art for mine..

 

[Son Of Coco]

Cool, let me know how that goes. I seem to not have too much difficulty swinging it conventionally both ways to a left hander but to a right hander, everything tends to swing away or not swing at all, which is a bit of a bummer.

I used to naturally bowl an off-cutter, but could bowl a leg-cutter too by rolling my fingers down the outside of the ball. However, the slight change in angle when bowling over the wicket to a left hander seemed to produce a leg-cutter without trying to bowl one first ball of the change in angle every time. It was handy, although I don't think I ever bowled anyone with it first up. Usually went darting over middle/off. It's funny how the slight change in angle affects things.

 

[SJS]

Lillee swung the ball a fair bit in his early years, predominantly out, though he had a reasonable inswinger as well. Was a handy variation for him.

But mostly it was his cutters. I recall him bowling a series of leg cutters to Boycs around 79-80 for a few overs, with Boycs picking them and letting them go, before Lillee produced a perfect in-ducker that bowled Boycs middle and off, with his bat above his head. It was a wonderful piece of bowling, summed up the fast bowlers' art for mine..

I am not so sure Lillee swung it in, in the air. He did bowl what Trueman calls his (Lillee's) "nip-backer" and he could make the ball come in very sharply off the pitch but in the air is not something Lillee was known to do to the best of my knowledge and whatever I saw of him.

If he did bowl a genuine in-swinger, it must have been a very rare one.

 

[SJS]

Two bowlers that one has seen consistently swing the ball both ways at the highest level with control are Imran Khan in the latter part of his career and Kapil Dev. Imran had slowed down from his express pace by then and his action was not the wind-mill type he started his carer with and, of course kapil was never amongst the fastest. Bowling within the medium fast range they managed to swing the ball late with very little perceptible change in action. Kapil, who was known for his great out-swingers, bowled a deadly in-swinging yorker. In fact, he seemed to use the in-swing more for his yorkers than for regular bowling which made his yorkers very effective indeed.

I still remember the complete surprise on the face of Pakistani batsman Qasim Omar when Kapil bowled him in the 84-85 Benson and Hedges final with a swinging yorker that just swung so late and was so well directed, there was absolutely nothing any batsman could have done about it.

 

[G.I.Joe]

Wasn't the term 'banana swing' coined for Kapil Dev?

 

[silentstriker]

That was primarily for his prodigous outswing, if I remember correctly.

 

[Burgey]

I am not so sure Lillee swung it in, in the air. He did bowl what Trueman calls his (Lillee's) "nip-backer" and he could make the ball come in very sharply off the pitch but in the air is not something Lillee was known to do to the best of my knowledge and whatever I saw of him.

If he did bowl a genuine in-swinger, it must have been a very rare one.

Yeah it was certainly a rare breed for him.

 

[luckyeddie]

Bob Massie

Not really. He found it, mislaid it and finally lost it irretrievably - all in a fortnight.

 

[DaRick]

McGrath it seems was better at swinging the white ball away from the right hander than the red ball. Rarely saw him get the ball to swing conventionally in tests. He did get the ball to reverse and used it to good affect in the subcontinent. He is a strange case, given the success that he had without having the ability to swing the ball either conventionally or reverse for the majority of the career.

Yeah well, he's not the first one who can swing the white ball more appreciably than the red. McGrath's success was built on moderate pace, eye-catching accuracy and a modicum of seam movement both ways (although mostly away from the right-hander). He also had a great bouncer and a fine yorker (he castled Mervyn Dillon with a reverse-swinging yorker in Brisbane in 2000).

 

[vic_orthdox]

Reckon Haydos could've gotten out Merv Dillon with a yorker.

 

[Richard]

That's ph34r. ITSTL that you didn't pick-up the rogue too.

Not really. He found it, mislaid it and finally lost it irretrievably - all in a fortnight.

Did he really swing it only in that Lord's Test and not in any of the others?

 

[vic_orthdox]

That's ph34r. ITSTL that you didn't pick-up the rogue too.

Did he really swing it only in that Lord's Test and not in any of the others?

Gar. What a dill!

 

[zaremba]

Did he really swing it only in that Lord's Test and not in any of the others?

I can't remember about the other Tests in the series but he had managed to get into the WA and then Australian teams as a swing bowler, so, plainly, in terms of being able to swing the ball (both ways), Lord's wasn't a complete flash in the pan.

 

[fredfertang]

Massie played a couple of games for Northants 2nds in 1970 but after taking 2 or 3 for plenty they sent him on his way - what a difference a couple of years make

 

[SJS]

Massie played a couple of games for Northants 2nds in 1970 but after taking 2 or 3 for plenty they sent him on his way - what a difference a couple of years make

Swing is a funny thing. It is so intricately connected to almost everything a bowler does in his action that one has to really know his action and its nuances to hold on to it. That is why one keeps coming across these bowlers who just lose their swing and are completely at loss to get it back. Unfortunately, even the coaches who will take all credit for the bowler as long as he is getting it right, are not able to put it together because many of them do not know it themselves.

That is why many bowlers who did not have a swinging delivery actually spent long hours, days, weeks and months in the nets to get to do it and these guys dont lose it as easily because they have 'learnt' how and what and why of it before getting it right. Those who are just 'gifted' with it may also lose as we do with so many gifts