Cricket

***Hence off-spin and leg-spin (also off-break and leg-break), which bounce on the respective side of the batsman***.

It doesn't make any difference where they bounce - it's the direction the ball goes AFTER it has bounced which gives rise to the terms off- spin and leg-spin.

**Swing = when fast bowler spins the ball hard and it moves in the air***

The bowler doesn't SPIN it. Instead the seam is placed so that it is pointing to slip (out-swing) or fine-leg (in-swing). The best chance of getting swing is to use the fingers and wrist to keep the seam in that position when it goes thru the air. (It may move off the pitch in the same direction if the seam hits). The bowler can also influence this by the position of the front foot and by sweeping the bowling hand down the correct side of the body AFTER the ball has gone. If the seam wobbles in the air, you've less chance of knowing which way, and how much it will move (both in the air and off the pitch).

Reverse swing is when you go for outswing, but at the last minute the ball darts in towards leg after 'shaping' to go off-side. I've get to see a convincing explanation of HOW it's done, but it's a bastard to play!

To get around to the answer, Tracer, most bowlers do not get any appreciable swing - even if they follow the textbook. There seems to be something about swing bowlers actions which is not entirely coachable, whereas most people can get some movement off the pitch (seam-bowlng).

Occasionally even the best swing bowlers findthey can't control the amount of swing and get TOO MUCH movement so that the batsman doesn't need to play the ball.

If you really wnat to get wierd about bowling we can talk about leg- spin, where the top bowlers have several viciousl spinning deliveries which are bowled with slightly different actions. Some spin one way, some the other, some keep low, some go straight on and some are bowled with lots of disguise to look like one of the other deliveries. It's bluff and double-bluff.

It is an almost magical combination of the use of rare skill and athleticism, aerodynamics, and exploiting natural phenomena.

It requires humidity to create a more dense air mass, and for the ball to be buffed to a shine ON ONE SIDE OF THE SEAM ONLY.

When the ball is bowled with the upright seam and the extra spin along the axis through the seam imparted by the bowler's index and middle fingers along it, with a smooth,shiny ball face one side and an unrestored mucky one that creates more friction, for the same reasons planes fly, the ball swings to one side in the thicker air.

It usually also dips sharply, sometimes VERY sharply, and the extra energy this generates gives it tremendous bounce off the pitch, while the combination of the seam hitting the pitch, at an angle created by the bowler, affected by the other forces such as rate of spin, can make that bounce extremely variable in height and direction.

The bowler's action, and precise preparation of one side of the ball, without tampering, and the required air density, are the keys, and it's awesome to watch!

Glen McGrath, Brett Lee and Jason Gillespie are the best exponents of the art.

Cricket - Ballet and War, with Bats and Balls! ...lol

Greetings fellow posters. Nice to see so many erudite, informed individuals.

The US also has hundreds of cricket teams, and must surely be on the verge of entering a team in even a one-day match? That would be great.

Today in OZ I predict the Aussie batsmen will be smashing the world record for a final innings to defeat New Zealand...their form says they'll do it, but either way it will be FUN!!!!!!!!

Thanks for sharing an interest in cricket.

No, I'm not complaining. But the conditions would have been perfect for him on the first couple of days. It's a shame, he's almost 29 and for reasons of family pride I want him to get a decent stab at it.

of course, the cute new zealand bowler made watching like 10 hours of cricket so much more interesting:
http://www.rediff.com/cricket/2002/sep/23vet.jpg

1) Notts failed to get more than ONE bonus point from their game
2) Yorkshire and Durham drew
3) Durham got maximum batting points.

Astonishingly, 1) and 3) have already come true, and 2) looks to be very much on the cards barring an absolute mare for Durham tomorrow.

Notts would have got the 2 bonus points by taking 7 or more Sussex wickets inside 130 overs, an occurrence which happens in almost every single Championship game. With an abysmal bowling display, they took just 6, accruing one point.

Notts would then have got the 1 further point they needed by scoring only 200 runs in their own first innings. Sussex had scored 550-odd for 6, so the pitch would seem to have been ideally suited to this.

They crumbled from 130-2 to 165 all out.

One of the biggest chokes in recent British sporting history?

(P.S. I'm a Worcs fan)

anyone following the test in hamilton?

yeah, thought so.

me, but its a bit of a foregone conclusion now innit

just looked at the scorecard at lunch. 36/4 from 18 overs. the scores of cook and vaughan total 22 runs from 33 balls, which means the rest of the sorry crew have made 12 runs from just under 13 overs. A run an over???

fraser's comments are spot on: england would never have declared as vettori did. they'd have waited until about 3 balls before tea, just in case mccullum hit 50 sixes in a row.

Do colly and bell have the bottle to survive? Better in this situation than KP and co but that doesn't mean anything.

they'll survive for the best part of an hour or so, in the english way. i'd be very surprised if the match goes into the final session, once the spinners get into their ribs and there are 4 or 5 around the bat.

funny how these things cycle. england outclassed at rugby today, being outclassed at cricket in a country where they probably expected to win, and going through transition in football. contrast to a few years ago: rugby world cup holders, ashes winners, rooney breaking into the england team...

Well, as a scotsman I enjoyed the rugby at least :) The cricket was sadly more predictable.

As a working class Englishman living oop North I enjoyed the rugby.

You enjoy England getting beat at anything, Jim.

Nah, the cricket is painful. But they've lost the plot big time, and I'm not a fan of Vaughan nowadays.

explain the class ref?

as in, how it is important in terms of the sport?

in the meantime, collingwood: 0 runs, 30 balls. should be zero balls, no fkg fight.

I don't care for Rugby Union cos I've too many hoorays are into it. In fact Guscott came out with a classic bit of twattery midweek when they dropped that dude for going clubbing - he said something along the lines of that behaviour not being good enough for Rugby players, but you'd expect it of footballers. Cock.

"cos I've known too many hoorays who are into it", I mean.

fairdos. i'm not a hooray, or a northerner (altho i live in mcr), but i like both codes but prefer union. i think i like contested scrums more than uncontested. but i like the rigidity of fixed numbers of tackles in league, although that leads to a sterility in terms of lack of depth of player size/beef/athleticism. league is homogenised rugby, union still has the cream separated at the top of the bottle.

just getting at: why is rugby cursed with class? football isn't (although the moneyed types are trying to make it that way).

League is nothing in Scotland. We like Union.

I don't think Union is a class signifier outside of England, hardly. I don't dislike watching Union matches, tho I far prefer League which to me is a way faster, more beautiful game to watch. I just hate the England team and their smug, Daily Mail reading, management book co-writing players.

They were 0/3 after the first over

They’ve steadied the ship at 18/6.

It is difficult to know how much the allegations hanging over one of the players have affected the squad as a whole. Doesn’t seem to have affected the player in question much but I can’t imagine it’s easy for everybody else.

New Zealand still has the lowest test score - but it came under serious threat today.

This England v India test series was fantastic.

Yep! Amazing conclusion

Great ad for the game, as they say

Fantastic stuff. Epic performance from Siraj.

Just perfectly balanced, exceptional series.

Think that's probably the most one sided match I've ever seen between two top tier nations. Winning by 342 runs in a 50 over match is just astonishing

I can only imagine South Africa had one hell of a party the other night.

West Indies: What Now FFS

Second string sure but they just got beaten twice by a country that's just been couped via Discord

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G5BqlgdXwAAAtzC?format=jpg&name=large

I don’t know why I hoped for anything better, but lol.

Let's see if this test can stretch to three days or not.

Green out, England on top!

sleepless night not much fun checking the score at 6.15, feeling much better now though

gonna be a fun series if neither team remembers how to bat

a short game's a good game!

I take it all back!

Stokes running amok here.

We are back to the 1900s

Most wickets on day one of an Ashes Test
25 2nd Test, Melbourne, 1901-02

22 2nd Test, The Oval, 1890

20 Only Test, The Oval, 1882; 2nd Test, Melbourne, 1894-95; 4th Test, Old Trafford, 1909

Real sowing vs. reaping vibes today

England batted for 67.3 overs in the entire match, their shortest total in an Ashes Test (where they lost all 20 wickets) since 1888.

Aus will need to score the highest total to win the match.

Which they are well on track to doing.

Christ, that was brutal.

That was something

Got my head on head

Astonishing innings from Head. What a player.

England? Pfft. Basically everything that was suggested; under-prepared, admirable vs ludicrous 'sticking to the gameplan' mentality and a generalised air of hubris. Brisbane could be messy.

Joe Root on 70..

Well done Root, with an excellent final wicket partnership too

Can I just say:

lol england

Worth a lol or two

vmic

Oops.

https://www.skysports.com/cricket/news/12040/13484655/the-ashes-snicko-operator-admits-mistake-led-to-incorrect-alex-carey-not-out-decision-during-third-test

Might have mattered if the series was alive.

Ashes null and void

Head still remains fixed on Head

speaking of Trinidad, I've been watching the WI regional final last couple of days. feel like Jayden Seales could end up being WI's best cricketer since Lara packed it in

and one of their boys has just seized the all-time Test 6th-wicket stand from Bairstow and Stokes, with a bit of help from Roston Chase