Throwing the cricket ball

There were many competitions for throwing a cricket ball the furthest distance, particularly in the earlier years of the game.

Wisden describes how the record was set around 1882, by one Robert Percival at Durham Sands Racecourse, at 140 yards and two feet.

Former Essex allrounder Ian Pont, who had tryouts with baseball teams in America, threw 138 yards in Cape Town in 1981.

There are unconfirmed reports that Janis Lusis, the Russian javelin thrower who won the Olympic gold medal in 1968, once threw a ball 150 yards.

Googly

In cricket, a googly is a type of delivery bowled by a right-arm leg spin bowler. It is occasionally referred to as a Bosie (or Bosey), an eponym in honour of its inventor Bernard Bosanquet. In Australia it is commonly referred to as a wrong'un (and in Pakistan as the wrong one, which led to the naming of the doosra, meaning "the other one" in Urdu).

Explanation

While a normal leg break spins from the leg to the off side, away from a right-handed batsman, a googly spins the other way, from off to leg, into a right-handed batsman (and is distinct from an off break delivery). The bowler achieves this change of spin by bending the wrist sharply from the normal leg break delivery position. When the ball rolls out of the hand (from the side near the little finger, as in a normal leg break), it emerges with clockwise spin (from the bowler's point of view). A googly may also be achieved by bowling the ball as a conventional leg break, but spinning the ball further with the fingers just before it is released.

The change of wrist action can be seen by a skilled batsman and the change of spin allowed for when playing a shot at the ball. Less skilled batsmen, or ones who have lost their concentration, can be deceived completely, expecting the ball to move one direction off the pitch, only for it to move the other direction. If the batsman is expecting a leg break, he will play outside the line of the ball after it spins. This means the ball can either strike the pads for a potential LBW appeal, or may fly between the bat and the pads and hit the wicket.

The googly is a major weapon in the arsenal of a leg spin bowler, and can be one of the bowler's most effective wicket-taking balls. It is used infrequently, because its effectiveness comes mostly from its surprise value.

Left-arm unorthodox spinners, commonly known as "chinaman" bowlers, can bowl with the googly action using the left arm. This delivery is usually known as a chinaman googly and turns away from a right-handed batsman, like a leg break or left-arm orthodox spinner. The googly is similar in principle to the doosra, the ball from an off-spinner which turns the opposite way from his stock ball.

Mechanics

To grip the ball for a leg-spinning delivery, the ball is placed into the palm with the seam parallel to the palm. The first two fingers then spread and grip the ball, and the third and fourth fingers close together and rest against the side of the ball. The first bend of the third finger should grasp the seam. The thumb resting against the side is up to the bowler, but should impart no pressure. When the ball is bowled, the third finger will apply most of the spin. The wrist is cocked as it comes down by the hip, and the wrist moves sharply from right to left as the ball is released, adding more spin. The ball is tossed up to provide flight. The batsman will see the back of the hand when the ball is released.

Reverse Swing

Conventional swing

The cricket ball often moves in the air towards or away from a batsman when a pace bowler is bowling. It is this deviation most fast bowlers strive for because of the problems it causes to the batsmen. Swing is all about aerodynamics. 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'.

But to obtain any sort of movement, there are a number of factors to consider.

The ball

Fielders are often seen continually shining one side of a ball by rubbing it on their trousers. The rubbing helps to maintain a smooth, shiny side while the opposite is left to deteriorate through normal wear and tear. In simple terms, the aerodynamics of bowling means the air travels faster around the shiny side lowering the air pressure on the shiny side by the Bernoulli Principle causing the ball to deviate in that direction. Other factors also play a part.

Reverse swing

Once the ball becomes older and more worn, it will begin to move in the opposite direction to where it would usually swing with no great change in the bowling grip.

For example, an outswinger's grip will move away from the batsman in the air while an inswinger will move towards the bat. All this tends to happen very late on in the delivery, making it difficult for the batsman to judge the changes in the air. Not every single bowler can obtain reverse swing - the ball needs to be propelled above 80 mph or thereabouts to make it move in the air.

Origin

Former Pakistan international Sarfraz Nawaz was the founder of reverse swing during the late 1970s, and he passed his knowledge on to former team-mate and captain Imran Khan. It was Imran who schooled bowlers Wasim Akram and Waqar Younis, who brought the art to the cricket world's attention during the late 1980s and 1990s. The dynamic duo managed to make the old ball swing a considerable distance at pace in both directions, a skill few bowlers can master.

In a display of reverse swing in a Test match against Australia in 1979 in Melbourne, Sarfraz Nawaz took nine wickets in an innings. This included a remarkable spell of 33 deliveries in which he captured 7 wickets for 1 run. This is when the cricket world noticed this new form of fast bowling.

Wasim Akram then brought reverse swing to the public limelight but the man who really put the reverse into swing was Waqar Younis. He bucked the 1980s trend of pitching fast and short by pitching fast and full. Not an obvious recipe for success until the prodigious late inswing is factored in, which was designed to smash into the base of leg stump or the batsman's toes.

How does it work?

There have been plenty of theories about why, but here's an explanation from former England bowling coach Troy Cooley:

• "Reverse swing is all to do with the deterioration of the ball and the seam position in flight. As the ball becomes rougher, it will take on a different characteristic as it deteriorates. So if you present the ball as an outswinger, the ball has deteriorated so much on the rough side that it takes on the characteristics of the shiny side. Which means a natural outswinger will become an inswinger and conversely, an inswinger into an outswinger."

The defining point of swing is the separation point of the initial layer of air with the ball, whichever side has greater air coverage will have more lift and lower pressure, lifting and sucking the ball towards it. For greater detail on what causes separation-point differences see swing bowling.

When does the ball start to reverse?

Since reverse swing favors the older ball, it will usually start to move around the 40-over mark. However, England's bowlers during the 2005 Ashes were able to make the ball reverse after just 15 to 20 overs. Brett Lee found his reverse swing in Adelaide on the 30-over mark.

Also during the 2009 T20 World Cup Pakistani fast bowler Umar Gul managed to get reverse swing after just 11 overs.

Zaheer Khan and Lasith Malinga is a specialist of reverse swinging yorkers at the present.

But how can bowlers manage to do this so early in the innings? The most important factor to consider is the pitch. The Indian sub-continent pitches are rougher and dustier than pitches elsewhere in the world. Hence, Indian sub-continent bowlers obtain reverse-swing after 5-over mark also. In Australia and New Zealand, pitches offer no or very little help and it all depends upon how the ball is variously played. South Africa presents the same picture, where the reverse-swing is seen little or none at all. England, however has seen some change in pitch conditions in the last decade and bowlers use that to reverse their deliveries earlier.

Like footballs, each manufacturer's cricket balls are different. Some have more pronounced seams while others deteriorate slower, both of which have an influence on how the ball will move in the air.

Bowling

A typical bowling action.

A bowler delivers the ball toward the batsmen, using what is known as a bowling action: the elbow may be held at any angle and may bend further, but may not straighten out during the action. If the elbow straightens, it is an illegal throw and the delivery is called a no-ball. Under new cricketing law, after consultation with health experts, the bowler is allowed to straighten his arm 15 degrees or less; if the bowler straightens his arm more than 15 degrees it is called a "no ball".

Usually, the bowler pitches the ball so that it bounces before reaching the batsman. Some part of the bowler's front foot in the delivery stride (that is, the stride when the ball is released) must be behind the popping crease to avoid a no-ball (although the bowler's front foot does not have to be grounded). The ball must also be delivered so it is within the batsman's reach; otherwise it is termed a wide. A wide cannot be called if the batsman hits the ball. A wide or no-ball results in an extra run being added to the batting team's score and an extra ball being bowled in the over.

The bowler's primary goal is to take wickets; that is, to get a batsman out or dismissed. When a bowler succeeds in dismissing the more accomplished batsmen on the opposing team he reduces the opportunity for the batting team to score, as it exposes the less skillful non-specialist batsmen. The bowler's secondary task is to limit the numbers of runs scored. There are two main kinds of bowlers: pace bowlers, who attempt to bowl the ball too quickly for the batsman to properly react, and spin bowlers who bowl slower deliveries that bounce and curve in unpredictable ways.

Extras

Every run scored by the batsmen contributes to the team's total. A team's total also includes a number of runs which are unaccredited to any batsmen. These runs are known as extras, apart from in Australia where they are also called sundries. Extras consist of byes, leg byes, no balls, wides and penalty runs. Byes and leg byes can be scored if the batsman misses making contact with bat and ball; while no-balls and wides are types of fouls committed by the bowler. For serious infractions such as tampering with the ball, deliberate time-wasting, and damaging the pitch, the umpires may award penalty extras to the opposition: in each case five runs. Five penalty runs are also awarded if a fielder uses anything other than his body to field the ball, or if the ball hits an object—a protective helmet, for example—left on the field by the fielding team. A team need not be batting in order to receive penalty extras.

A traditional cricket ball

The white stitching is known as the seam. As one-day games are often played under floodlights, a white ball is used to aid visibility.

Wickets

A wicket consists of three stumps that are hammered into the ground, and topped with two bails.