From: ABEGLEY@ccmail.sunysb.edu (Anthony M. Begley)
Newsgroups: rec.sport.cricket
Subject: Re: swing, seam & cut
Date: 13 Aug 1992 14:00:15 -0500
Organization: State University of New York, Stony Brook
NNTP-Posting-Host: cs.utexas.edu
X-Unparseable-Date: 13 Aug 1992 14:59:23 -0400 (EDT)


               State University of New York at Stony Brook
                       Stony Brook, NY 11794-2275

                                            Anthony M. Begley
                                            Materials Science
                                            516 632-8516
                                            13-Aug-1992 02:58pm EDT
FROM:  ABEGLEY
TO:    Remote Addressee                     ( _rec-sport-cricket@cs.utexas.edu )

SUBJECT: Re: swing, seam & cut                                        



Sudhama poses some questions:

1) What kind of deviation is more pronounced, generally speaking? Swing (in the
air) before the ball pitches, or deviation after the ball pitches. Which can
be considered to be more difficult to play?

Certainly swing in the air, as certain bowlers like Sarfraz Nawaz, Imran,
Mudasser Nazar (sic), Geoff Boycott (even siccer) could swing the ball like
a banana on occasions. The difficulty in playing the ball is determined more
by when the deviation or swing occurs. Obviously if the ball pitches and seams
a foot (say) and the batsmen does not get his front foot close enough to the 
ball, then he will be beaten easily. Similarly, if the bowler can swing the ball
as late as possible just before it pitches, then the same result will occur.
Unfortunately only the great bowlers can swing the ball late (Alderman comes
most readily to mind). 

I think most batsmen will agree that big banana deliveries which swing 3 feet
are not as hard to play as the swing starts right from out of the hand so it
is easier to detect early. The good thing about swing over seam is at least it
will defeat a good forward defensive (which always gets right to the pitch of 
the ball ,thereby negating the seam movement).


2) Is deviation after the bounce solely due the seam hitting the ground or do 
the principles of swing (in the air) also hold?

Deviation off the pitch is either due to hitting the seam off the ground or
by spinning then ball (as in off-cutter). Dont forget that I have seen
Michael Holding deliveries on TV that swang into the batsmen from the hand, 
seamed away off the pitch, and then swang back appreciably into the 
keepers gloves. This was presumably cos Holding had a beautifully high straight
delivery action that kept the seam in the same position even after the bounce.


3) Is cut to be distinguished from the above because it is solely a consequence
of the fingers (or wrist - isn't that what Merv Hughes does) - just like spin is?

I would say so but were on murky ground here. My off-cutter is just a fast 
off break which I can bowl with balls without any seam at all (those red plastic
practise balls which , by the way in reply to a previos comment, are usually
IMPOSSIBLE NOT to swing). However most seamers off cutters would I think land 
on the seam in a specific orientation. So I dont know.

> Sudhama

Tony B.

PS What happened to all the details about the Windes vs India match In New York
City. For those of us that dont subscribe to India Today could someone provide
a phone number please ?
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