Pakistani bowlers - Pioneers of reverse swing
Pakistani bowlers in the past have been revered and held in high esteem for introducing the art of reverse swing to international cricket. This ability to swing the bowl has been dubbed as an art form by many.
Explaining how reverse swing works is important. Reverse swing has more movement and has a higher impact than a normal, conventional swinging ball can do. It can easily fool a batsman as the ball swings normally in its flight and then starts to reverse -
it goes the other way just when it is about to approach the batsman. Usually, there are two types of reverse swing. The ball reverses in the opposite direction of the original swing and this usually forms a trajectory with a shape of an “S”. The second one,
which is considered equally dangerous, is when the ball tends to reverse in the same direction of the original swing, making an elaborate movement.
Batsmen in general are puzzled to play a ball that is reverse swinging. This is primarily because very few bowlers have the ability to reverse the ball, while very few batsmen have the ability to play it accordingly.
The ball tends to reverse in the later stages of the match, usually when the ball is about 30 overs old. When on side roughs up, the other side is rigorously shined. The ball then cuts through the air on the shiny side. Aerodynamics comes into action and
the ball moves in the air at high speeds.
Pakistani bowlers Sarfaraz Nawaz and http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Sikander-Bakht-c90277 pioneered the art of reverse swing in the 1970’s. They passed on their skills to the legendary Imran Khan, who mastered it to perfection, and was successful in taking innumerable wickets. Knowledge flowed
as http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Wasim-Akram-c96292 and Waqar Younis were able to capitalize from this art as well.
The irony of it all is that Pakistan was initially not appreciated for their discovery and successful use of reverse swing, and many misinterpreted it with ball tampering. It was beyond the understanding of many, as to how a ball can start swinging in that
fashion in normal conditions. They would allege that Pakistani bowlers tampered with the ball in order to make it swing in that fashion.
A perfect example of this was when Pakistani players toured England back in 1992. Pakistan was playing under the captaincy of Imran Khan at the time. When Pakistan came to bowl, the English batsmen were completely stumped by the reverse swing, their batsmen
were clueless as to how to play such a moving ball, which cost them the series as Pakistan won 2-1. The English were trying to logically understand the phenomenon of reverse swing, as it was something new to the world of cricket, it didn’t even have a name
by then. They assumed that the ball was tampered with. Their allegations resulted in a huge controversy.
A controversy erupted in 2006 once again when Pakistan was touring England under the captaincy of http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Inzamam-ul-Haq-c64383. As the ball reversed, the batsmen complained to the then umpire Darrel Hair that the ball was being tampered with. To Pakistan’s surprise, Darrel
Hair was convinced by England’s allegations and penalized http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Pakistan-c755 by granting 5 runs to the English side. In protest to this, Inzamam and the rest of the Pakistani players did not come out on the field to play the rest of the match. The Oval test resulted
in a forfeit for the first time in modern cricket history.
Later, Inzamam and his team mates could not be proved guilty and Darrel Hair was banned for life from officiating in international matches. It really seemed that Pakistan was playing way ahead of its time. As time passed, this invention was appreciated by
the cricketing world as well.
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