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A Special Feature by B.V.Swagath

It was a usual hot sultry day and I was trying my best to outsmart the batsmen, but with my limitations in skill and in pace I was getting smacked almost every ball I bowled. I was trying my best , but my best was not sufficient enough to have any impact on the batsmen. Then suddenly, I just thought why not try to wet (put sweat and saliva) the ball as I have seen International players do on TV. I seemed to have got some extra and rather late movement in the air. This continued and I gained some new confidence and most importantly, batsmen were not taking my bowling lightly anymore !!! I was keenly observing Javagal Srinath's bowling in the tests at home , especially the Ahmedabad Test against South Africa where he had picked up 6 wickets in the 2nd innings . I kept on experimenting with the ball, changing the sides of the ball and observing the directions in which the ball was moving. The more I started to bowl like this, the more I understood what "reverse swing" is. I found immediate results by bowling many a batsmen with the reverse swinging yorkers, it was so fascinating to watch the ball swirl in the air .The basic idea about reverse swing that a bowler has to understand is that the ball moves in the direction of the shiny side or the heavier side (wet side), the other side of the ball being considerably rough. This is the only thing a bowler has to realize and not the ball mechanics involved in reverse swing...

So as stated above, the ball moves in the direction of the shine , irrespective of whether the bowler is gripping the ball for an outswinger or an inswinger . 

Different variations that can be used with reverse swing (unless stated, the following is looked at a right arm bowler bowling to a right handed batsman. 

(1) Holding the ball for an outswinger , with the shiny/wet side on the right side.

Result: Ball initially moves out in the air and comes back into the batsman sharply . 
Usually, a batsman can be out leg before as he tends to play along the wrong line. Even a half volley with this kind of ball may not be as easy as it appears for the batsman , with a gate opening between bat and pad (the batsman attempting a cover drive) as he tends to play for the outswinger. 
 

(2) Holding the ball for an inswinger, with the shiny/wet side on the left side.

Result: Ball initially moves towards the batsman and at the last moment darts away from the batsman. 
A batsman can be caught behind the wickets and sometimes bowled. One best way to ball this type of delivery is to go wide off the crease and with this angle, a batsman is forced to play the ball. Outside offstump line may only result in the batsman being beaten, so the more effective line would be on offstump, the length should be around the good length - forcing the batsman to play a forward defensive shot . 

(3) Holding the ball for an outswinger, with the shiny/wet side on the left side.

Result: It is very obvious that the ball moves more and more away from the batsman. 
So the line of the delivery should be more on the middle stump . This kind of delivery results more in getting the batsman to nick the ball to the wicket keeper and the slips . It is important to know that by holding the ball in this fashion , a bowler cannot afford to pitch it outside off stump, atleast in limited overs matches as it would result in a 'wide'.
 

(4) Holding the ball for an inswinger, with the shiny/wet side on the right side.

Result: The ball moves in very sharply almost like a double inswinger/banana inswinger . 
This kind of delivery must be pitched outside offstump so that the Umpire thinks it would hit the legstump atleast. Great delivery for the big inswinging yorkers or the 'toe crunchers' as they are called. Batsman can be out either by getting bowled or leg before. 

Left Handers , hmm I always liked bowling round the wicket to them . You can create more angles for a left hander than a right hander, thus making bowling to lefties a lot more fascinating . 

There is a myth that reverse swing is only effective for the real quick bowlers, which isn't true at all. Best example that comes to my mind is that of Nathan Astle ,of New Zealand, in a Test Series in India . Nathan Astle bowled many overs in that series, the pitches were not quick but Astle was successful in keeping one end tight with his millitary medium pace. All he did was to just keep on persisting with an offstump line backed up with some good reverse swing . Of course, the faster you bowl, more are the chances of a batsman being bowled by those fast toe crunchers . Medium pacers have a great chance of getting leg before decisions and caught behinds if not the 'bowleds' .

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