For all the talk of the wobble-ball, spin has been taking wickets at an extremely high rate too. The last 3 years of Test have the lowest spin SR of any year since 1932.

Teams are leaning into home conditions for both bowling types and it has made batting very difficult in Tests.

#cricket #WTC

There is still so many bad misconceptions about what makes a ball reverse swing, even from the world's best bowlers

I also love this clip of Ian Ward asking him about his Carrom Ball, only to find that it is a 'back-flipper', which is essentially and arm-ball that drifts in, rather than away, to a RHB.

He turned one difficult variation into another, which I'm not sure any other RH off-break bowler has.

#cricket

He is also one of the great thinkers of the game, which was evident in the variety of his bowling in all formats. I'm excited to see where he ends up, either in media or coaching.

He did, however, give us this all-timer of a quote on his video where he chopped up some cricket balls...

My lasting memory of Ashwin will be watching him bowl against England in 2018. The hold he had over Cook - a great player of off-spin by left-handed opener standards - was truly something.

These two deliveries were at the start of Day 1 and end of Day 2, in foreign conditions. Incredible bowler.

Thanks!

Here's my favourite example of a cricket knuckleball as a trade-off, though it's definitely all swing and not SSW, sadly

I've heard some comparisons for Brydon Carse, but watching him bowl, I can't see anything other than Simon Jones (with a slightly higher front arm).

Same height, similar bowling speeds, and very comparable skills.

What do we think?

#cricket #NZvsENG

Finally, Rana bowled the ball of the day, with a medium wobble, or 'three quarter ball'. This wobbles enough to let the ball seam both ways, but minimises the chance of missing the seam completely.

This ball angles in, seams away, and hits the top of off-stump. Unplayable.
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Bumrah's excellent seam presentation helps him generate swing, but he interestingly also uses it to seam the ball, rather than a wobble ball.

A presented seam hits the pitch regularly, but often only moves in the direction of swing. Bumrah's skill lets him swing and seam the ball both ways.
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In contrast, for the Pant dismissal, Cummins uses a much wider wobble, which has the option to hit the seam and move either way but also slide on off the side of the ball.

The wider wobble, however, eliminates any chance of swing, but does create variety, and stops a bowler being predictable.
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With 17 wickets falling on Day 1 of #AUSvsIND, Iet's use some of the dismissals to see how bowlers go about extracting seam movement, which wasn't lacking!

Hazlewood here uses a small wobble seam, which is subtly angled across the LHB, creating some swing and seam away, finding the edge.
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Post a non-religious photo you think of as holy

I woke up to a lot of #cricket followers, so I might as well repost some clips!

If you don't know me, I have a PhD in the Aerodynamics of Swing Bowing, and I work in cricket data analytics.

Here's a clip from the Bowlers Union podcast, discussing shining both sides of the ball (link in reply):

This diagram shows a top-down view of why this occurs.

With a stable seam and a slight angle, the airflow on each side of the ball is altered by the rough stitching, causing the air behind to be deflected, and the ball to drift.

For more info, check out my latest blog: tinyurl.com/drftblg

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Here's a Bashir example, which drifts away and turns in, allowing him to beat the outside edge.

Again, the seam is stable, but angled slightly differently to Rashid, causing it to drift in the opposite direction.

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My #cricket science posts never got much traction on the old platform, so let's see how they do here!

I recently wrote about drift for spinners on my blog, and how it isn't all about the revs on the ball. Watch these two Rashid deliveries below and how they move in the air.

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