Dale Steyn and Graeme Swann

[Xuhaib]

TBF Yousuf's hardly a duff player of spin and Swann managed to castle him with one that turned big in the last ODI.

I did mention on a pitch that helps spins a bit he will trouble anyone.

 

[Migara]

Does the Kookaburra really drift more than the Duke? I suppose if there's a less prominent seam it's possible, but for now I take this one with a p. of s.

There's a difference IMO. Swann has to contend with the SG in India. Murali for example did not like the SG at all. It

 

[aussie]

I am not an expert on drift. But it is not related to the wind imho. If you spin any ball. A table tennis ball, a tennis ball, or a baseball it will curve in the air.
The more revs you put on it - the more drift. Or so I thought. I was reading this quote from
Murali from a Cricinfo interview and he makes it sound like it is an art form. So there must be more to it.

Interesting that.

 

[Migara]

I am not an expert on drift. But it is not related to the wind imho. If you spin any ball. A table tennis ball, a tennis ball, or a baseball it will curve in the air.
The more revs you put on it - the more drift. Or so I thought. I was reading this quote from
Murali from a Cricinfo interview and he makes it sound like it is an art form. So there must be more to it.

Drift is in fact an art. Some top blokes some times fail to get drift but unknown club spinners sometimes gets in loads. Like swing, the atmosphere, wind speed, and number of revs on the ball all have an effect. The arm ball where the seam is like = drift and dip. But the backward spun arm ball does not drift, but will swing, but never dips.

 

[zaremba]

A nice piece from cricinfo about Swann's recent performance in all forms of the game.

 

[vic_orthdox]

This.



Does the Kookaburra really drift more than the Duke? I suppose if there's a less prominent seam it's possible, but for now I take this one with a p. of s.

Yeah, I read that article and it was a point that I haven't heard raised before. Bowler's have long got drift in Australia, I'd rather be asking a bowler than Duncan Fletcher on the differences.

 

[weldone]

Hey hey hey, you also rated Ishant highly, so lets not get too ****y off of a 50% prediction strike rate.

Is going to drop to 33% after a few years...He has predicted 10000+ test runs for Virat Kohli at the very minimum...

 

[vic_orthdox]

My understanding of drift is that it is related to the wind. Hence the slower the delivery, the more likely it is for the wind to take effect. Warne used drift to great effect in Australia so it is not incomprehensible for Swann to do the same.

It's not related to wind in the slightest. Wind will assist it, but simply the more work that you get on the ball, the more drift that you are going to get. The more sidespin, the greater the drift as well. Basically the same theory as a curveball/slurve in baseball.

 

[vic_orthdox]

Swann doesn't get over the perpendicular, like he was against Australia. It gives him a better natural curve, but what it's also done is allow him to get slightly more overspin on the ball, giving him more dip on the ball and creating more doubt in the mind of the batsman.

A lot of the wickets where he's managed to bring the ball through bat and pad is caused by the ball bouncing a tiny bit shorter than the batsman expects, which creates the hole as well as the drift.

Swann has absolutely perfect seam position at the moment, and it's ripping and gripping perfectly as a result when it meets the pitch. Think that's more the difference than him physically getting that many more revs on the ball.

 

[BoyBrumby]

Always love reading vic on spin.

What's impressed me most about Swann is the sheer degree of turn he gets. For an orthodox offie he really turns it a huge amount. Admittedly none of Afridi, Ajmal or Yardy are big turners of the ball, but on decks where they could barely make it go off the straight he was pitching them on the lefties' leg stump and they were just clipping the top of off.

 

[Migara]

Reminds me of Rajesh Chauhan, who had a beautiful seam position on the ball, who spun it same amount as Swann if not more with some banana drift.