Good swing bowling can literally be unplayable. If a ball swings late enough nobody, not Sachin, not Lara, not Bradman, has ever had good enough reactions to counter the movement. It's a physical impossibility.
Yet somehow great players manage to build epic innings when the ball swings. How do they do it?
While science has no answers yet, there are some interesting theories to explore.
1. Watch the ball
A reaction time limitation means that it's impossible to watch the ball right onto the bat. What distinguishes the good players from the average ones is their ability to correctly predict where the ball will be and move into the correct position. That is according to Bob Woolmer and Tim Noakes coaching book.
In practical terms what does this mean?
Greg Chappell says that it's all about watching the point of release from the bowler. If you see the ball released late it will be short, if you see it released early it will be full. Additionally, the bowler can give you subtle clues in their grip, run up and delivery stride that can help you. If you see an angles seam you know the bowler is at least trying to swing the ball.
Those blessed without a great talent for this can improve their ability by practice. This is one reason why facing a bowling machine is less beneficial than facing real bowling: You don't get the clues from the bowler.
2. Get to the pitch of the ball
Swing bowlers are usually going to pitch the ball up to you. Without doing that they will not get the swing they need. This means you will usually be playing forward to them.
If the ball swings later than you ability to react you will be more likely to miss it or edge it. To reduce this risk, it's important to get as close to the pitch of the ball as possible. This will reduce the amount of time the ball has to deviate. It might be enough to stop you catching the edge.
The idea is not to over step. You still need to lead with your head and shoulder while having your weight over your front foot. You should be trying to get in as big a stride as possible though. The closer you are to the pitch, the safer you are.
3. Play with soft hands
If you are facing a good swing bowler there will be times you will be beaten. You can reduce the chances of getting out either nicking off to the slips or bowled through the gate by playing defensively with soft hands.
In modern limited over cricket it is often beneficial to push the hands and bat towards the ball so you can hit the ball into a gap and steal a single. While this is an excellent tactic, against a late swinging ball edges will carry comfortably to the slips or gulley.
Instead of trying to 'punch' the ball, play the defensive shot as intended: A way of killing the pace of the ball. If you do this correctly it is much harder for an edge to carry to the slips.
How do you do it?
Are you a swing bowler? What frustrates you most about the batters who play you well? Perhaps you are a good player of the swinging ball. What are your secrets? Leave a comment.
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What frustrates me is batsmen who come down the pitch, negating the outswing swing effect. I over come this though by a) having a very good keeper who can stand up to me and b) bowling the inswinger which they dont expect, miss it down leg and get stumped/nearly stumped. Certainly puts them back in their crease.
A barrage of short balls also does the trick, just the old cliche, short, short, short, full and swinging. The key is just keep the batsmen guessing.
i dont mind swing bowlers too much... but i absolutely HATE it when the keeper stands up as i like to walk down the pitch to give the ball less time to swing. like today.... 43 out stumped :(
I know my coach would kill me if he heard me say this, but as an openning batsman I find the best way to play spin is with a cross bat.
Hey...what's the Woolmer book like??
What about swing Fisha?
John, I have not read it all yet (it's huge) but it's excellent so far.
I'm a swing bowler and know how some batsmen sometimes play me easily but I will not disclose it so swing bowlers' weaknesses are not known
im a left armer and i naturaly swing the ball in, i love it when batsmen stand on leg with their front foot pointing to mid on. all you do is angle a short "ish" one in at their chest or bowl a out swinger or cross seam out side off stump which they cant play. i also get alot of wickets with in swinging yorkers with batsmen trying to get foward and trying to hit the ball square of the v. when batting and facing a left armer who swings it in i find it helps if i trigger my back foot from leg to middle and off like kp, then your in a good position to either clip it off your legs if its on a bad line or get forward and either defend or drive depending on the length and line. just remember not to open up your stumps with the front foot and learn to leave any balls hitting the 5th and 6th stumps as the angle will take the ball to 3rd and 4th slip.
Oh sorry David, wasn't thinking. I meant swing.
Fisha, that's a risky strategy but if it works for you I can't argue.
Great tip Ollie!
If the batsman comes forward I ask the wicketkeeper to stand up, if the batsman plays really well then I tend to vary the pace greatly and mix in some cutters, especially on dry flat pitches.
im a keeper and keeping up to the stumps is the best way to beat a batsman who is not use to it. They forget that i am standing there and that's when i have my chances. And nine times out of ten i get them :) . But for me when i'm batting is to vary where i stand in the crease. 2 feet behind the line, both feet 3 ft down the pitch, whatever works to stop the bowler from bowling his best deliveries.
Standing up is a great tactic to batsmen taking liberties. I would advise against it if the ball is swinging a lot though. You might lose out on nicks to outswing and if an full inswinging ball goes down the leg side you could be looking at 4 byes!
If you're trying to keep the batsman pinned in the crease, but can't stand up to the stumps due to the swing or the pace - maybe it's worth practising throwing the stumps down from where you are keeping. It's something you can get quite good at, and if you are it'll give the batsman something to think about. Word of warning though - make sure your fielders are aware of it - so they will be backing up and in on deflections off the stumps good and quick.
Great tip ed. I have been out stumped to a keeper standing back doing just that, so it works.
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