Showing posts with label Reverse Swing. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Reverse Swing. Show all posts
Wednesday, June 17, 2009

Pakistan & The Reverse Swing Saga


Posted by Q at Wednesday, June 17, 2009 Pitched (33)
A brief run down history first before I get to Umar Gul.

Wasim Akram

1985: 10 wicket haul in only his 2nd test match against New Zealand.
1985-1990: enhances his repuation through leading performances against all teams.
1990: destroys Australia in Melbourne with a 11 wicket haul.
March 1992: one of the leading wicket takers of World Cup, 2 in 2 ends England's hopes.
Summer 1992: Destroys England in England with 21 wickets in 4 tests leading Pakistan to 2-1 series victory.

Reaction: Wasim isn't an exceptional bowler. He hardly picks up wickets. We don't know how he managed so much swing and picked up so many wickets against us. Must be ball tampering.

Waqar Younis

1990: Destroys New Zealand at home with 29 wickets in 3 tests.
1990: Picks up 9 wickets against a powerful West Indies test line up in his first test against them.
1990-92: Builds his reputation as the world's fastest bowler.
Summer 1992: Destroys England in England with 22 wickets in 5 tests leading Pakistan to 2-1 series victory.

Reaction: He's just a fast bowler. Has pace, but we've never seen him swing the ball so much. We don't know how he managed so many wickets. Must be ball tampering.

Mohammad Asif

Jan 2006: Destroys India in Karachi with 7 wickets helping Pakistan win test series 1-0.
Apr 2006: Destroys Sri Lanka in Kandy with 11 wickets in 2nd test.
Summer 2006: Returns from injury to play England in 3rd test at the Oval. 4 wickets in the 1st innings results in England collapsing to 173 all out.

Reaction: Who is this boy. We've never seen him before. And how can he come back from injury and swing the ball like that? Must be ball tampering.

Saeed Ajmal

July 2008: Makes impressive ODI debut against India in the Asia Cup.
July - Nov 2008: Bangladeshi and West Indian bastmen find his offies and doosras difficult to pick.
2009: Bamboozles Australia with his doosras in ODIs in Dubai and Abu Dhabi.

Reaction: Where did this spinner come from? Has he even played before? Why don't we have videos of him? How does his doosra spin so much? Must be a chucker.

Umar Gul

2007: Leading wicket taker at the ICC World Twenty20.
2007-2009: Builds his repuation as one of the best T20 bowlers; figures speak for themselves.
May 2009: Destroys the Australians with 4-8 in a T20I in Dubai and becomes leading wicket taker in T20 internationals.
June 2009: Demolishes New Zealand batting line up with 5-6, the best ever figures in a T20 international.

Reaction: We don't know how he swung the ball so much. We have never seen reverse swing in the 12th over of a match. Must be ball tampering.


After the English and the Australians, only New Zealand were left to whine against Pakistan. Maybe it will be South Africa's turn after the semi final.

Why can't these guys just accept the skill and talent that the Pakistan bowlers possess?

Why do they always have to come out with baseless accusations?

Ofcourse Daniel Vettori doesn't know how Umar Gul managed to swing the ball.

Had he paid more attention to Gul's feats in T20 cricket over the last 2 years, maybe then he would have realized what hit his batsmen.

Actually Vettori didn't even have to look all that far back in history; just a month ago Gul had run through Australia's batting line up with 4-8. Not that different from his 5-6; that too against far superior batsmen.

The problem with all the above mentioned accusations is that those accusing have chosen to ignore history.

Wasim Akram, Waqar Younis, Mohammad Asif, Saeed Ajmal, and Umar Gul did not become unplayable overnight.

Nor did they perform with the ball for the first time when these accusations were made.

Did none of these baseless assusers follow these great bowlers or study them on video before coming out to play against them?

Why raise eye-brows when the same bowlers have been doing the same stuff to all teams, particularly when those other teams have had no reason to doubt!

About time everyone sits put, shuts up, and acknowledges that they were just not good enough.

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Monday, March 17, 2008

The Microsoft Cup – Part I


Posted by obaid at Monday, March 17, 2008 Pitched (2)

From the wet wintry overcast weather, lush alpine greenery and snow capped mountains in the background, you could mistakenly think Redmond, WA is simply part of the American rural backwater – just another stop on the way to some of the best ski slopes and hiking trails in the Pacific Northwest. But then if you navigate around “1 Microsoft Way” you come across a un-remarkable corporate sprawl, with wide expanses of black asphalt parking lots and cookie cutter office buildings with reflective glass.

To most of the world, this is the den of the evil empire; the scheming software giant that is Microsoft, seeking to dominate the world of technology by any means possible. To any cricket lover new to the area, things would be equally dark and unpromising. It rains here continuously from Fall to Spring – if its not raining, its pretty dark and depressing. The ground stays wet till the summer, so there really cant be any hope of playing serious cricket. Cricket does pick up in the summer, as this article by Reuters mentions. There is a serious and well-structured 50 over a side hardball, cricket league that involves “home” and “away” games. Star performers are selected for state-wide “all-star” outfits and even get to travel to California. But as this article mentions, this type of cricket is played mostly by local Indians. The Pakistanis as I will go on to explain turn to other forms of cricket.

However, all is not lost in the winter months. To keep its employees happy, Microsoft does have world class soccer fields that have great drainage and in fact the surface is an artificial grass called FieldTurf. The same surface is used in many professional stadiums in the US, including Qwest field, home of the Seattle Seahawks. In the company’s own words:

FieldTurf’s grass fibers are surrounded and stabilized by a special blend of “synthetic earth” - FieldTurf’s patented mixture of smooth, rounded silica sand and rubber granules.

What this surface means for cricket is that there is never any standing water and the small pieces of rubber that come with the surface add to the playing conditions. After an overnight rain, the surface becomes slick with moisture, the pieces of rubber add unpredictable bounce and an intelligent bowler can really take advantage of the conditions. And, as I will go on to explain, the surface is also conducive to some serious swing bowling. Add Pakistani’s and some willing Indians to the equation and you have the makings of some serious battles.

Any true Pakistani cricket worth his salt is brought up playing “tape ball” cricket. These days everybody talks about the IPLs and ICLs and the wham bam action of 20/20 cricket. But if you know anything about the Pakistani psyche, you will know that we want big action and we want it fast. That’s where tape ball cricket comes in. You will find a game going on in the streets of Pakistan with people of every age playing no hold barred with a tennis ball that has electrical tape tightly wound around it. The Indians Ive seen playing cricket here prefer to use a heavier rubbery ball which they refer to as “MRI”. The Pakistani’s unsurprisingly use taped tennis balls.

Now, on to explaining the finer details of this setup. The games are usually played in a street with houses on the sides. Any hits into people’s houses can at the worst result in broken windows, the banning of cricket on the street and at best result in you being declared out. The best of shots are straight hits for six. For the bowlers it means trying to bowl at express pace with plenty of yorkers and slower ones thrown in. It also means trying to swing the ball from the get go with potentially devastating consequences. If the tape is wound tight in an uneven way, the ball is not a perfect sphere and tends to swing from the start. Once it hits the rough road surface a few times, the tape breaks apart from a few places and reverse swing can be unleashed in even the very first over! Yes, Ive said it – Pakistani reverse swing bowling owes a lot to tape bowling. Have you ever seen a Pakistani bowler getting worked up about the umpire changing the ball (ok, routine changes only)? Batsmen of the street always examine the ball if it swings prodigiously and inevitably ask the opposing captain to supply a freshly taped one. I myself have played endless “test matches” on the streets with a half tape ball (only one half taped). What Wikipedia has to say about the physics of reverse swing , only reinforces my belief that any Pakistani bowler has an acquired ability to reverse swing the real ball because of his tape ball experience. Maybe Sami didnt play tape ball cricket?

Wikipedia says that when a conventional cricket ball "becomes very old—around 40 or more overs old, it can begin to swing towards the polished side rather than the rough side."

This is exactly what happens with a non-pristine tape ball. For ideal inswing, hold the side with the biggest tear away from the desired direction of swing, and then hand it to a tear-away fast bowler. Forget about the 40th over, a tape ball swing from the first over… what was that I said about being Pakistani ☺

Now, lets rewind to Redmond. The FieldTurf surface has prickly artificial grass which is wet. The dew makes the tape wet, lose grip on the ball. Tears that open up can be fully exploited for swing. And if there are 2 simultaneous games along the breadth of the soccer field, the batsmen can exploit a 20 yard off and legside boundary and all things become even. Imagine having the goal line as the point boundary and the kickoff line as the legside one.

Now that I have hopefully set up the stage for tape ball cricket in Redmond, WA, I will talk about a 6 a side, 6 over per side tape ball tournament that occurred over the last 3 weekends. Even though I was called in as a replacement, I managed to deliver one match winning performance, one Misbah-like damning performance and witnessed some never-seen-before type occurrences that are made for blogging.

Opinions and personal experiences on the joy/curse of tape ball cricket arewelcome.

On a more serious note, I hope and pray that things improve in Pakistan and that our street cricketers can once again return to their cricketing habitat without having to fear for their lives.

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Sunday, November 4, 2007

Grinding to a Halt


Posted by O2 at Sunday, November 04, 2007 Pitched (2)
Nope, i'm not referring to Pakistan's latest attempt to transition to a some semblance of a working democracy. The subject refers to the seemingly inexorable assembly line of fast bowlers that Pakistan is famed for. An assemble line that, in my opinion, is the very lifeline of Pakistani cricket. It is no accident that some of the most famous test wins in our cricketing history have been scripted by our pacemen. Be it Fazal Mahmood, Sarfraz Nawaz, Imran Khan, Wasim, Waqar or Shoaib, Pakistan have seemingly always possessed a matchwinner capable of turning a game on its head with a single rip roaring spell. Pakistani pacers are also the reason why the country has a better away record than India, which has always had the much stronger batting. At the end of the day, you can put all the runs on the board you want but if you can't knock over the opposition twice, you just don't win games. And knocking 'em over, whatever the conditions, has been somewhat of a Pakistani speciality.

Today, Pakistan's bowling options are in relatively far less rude health. Consider this: Should any of the current lot on tour in India break down, who would be the replacement? Any names come to mind? I can think only of Sami, Rana Naved (if he's not injured - from what i recall he suffered quite an ugly shoulder injury playing for Sussex) and Azhar Mahmood! The embarassment of bowling riches has become...well...an embarassment. Im sure there will be people out there who disagree with me. But it is no accident that Pakistan opted to spin out the South Africans in the recent test series rather than relying on their traditionally strong pace attack. This with an aggressive Australian fast bowler as coach! I think that the team management recognizes that they no longer have the cutting edge when it comes to the pace attack - rather than blasting out the opposition, boring them out was thought to be a better course of action. As if wickets in Pakistan weren't turgid enough, suddenly we have to endure Kaneria and Abdul Rehman whirling away all day.

Let's consider the facts. Let me start off by saying that the true test of a bowler is his ability to take wickets in the five day version of the game. One dayers are not really a true reflection of a bowler's ability to slice through a batting line-up given that batsmen are far more likely to fall to shot played to up the ante rather than any particularly brilliant piece of skill from the bowler. Having got that out of the way, we can proceed. Shoaib, post-2002, has made only sporadic 'guest' appearances for Pakistan and has not played enough games for us to consider him as an available bowler for the purpose of this piece. Furthermore, at 32 he's nearing the end of his shelf life, especially given the nature of his bowling and his brittle body. So let's discount him for now. Of the rest, the 'bountiful' bowling cupboard boasts of Sami, Mohammad Asif, Umar Gul, Rao Iftikhar Anjum, Rana Naved and now Sohail Tanveer. Of this ensemble, only Mohammad Asif can claim to be a world class bowler without avoiding eye contact while doing so. The rest are neither consistent nor exciting enough to be given any such label.


Sami is a prodigious waste of talent, breath, and words. Bestowed with such great pace, he's managed to fluff his lines and finds himself cast adrift with no sight of a way back on board. And rightfully so. He's been given more opportunities than most could ever wish for yet he has never been able to fulfill the promise he showed in his first year when he combined wicked pace with some prodigious swing to get everyone hot and bothered.


Umar Gul has yet to convince. I feel he is still inconsistent and prone to bowling too short. From what i saw of him in the one dayers against the Proteas, he also seems to be having trouble keeping the seam straight - most of his deliveries were released with a scrambled seam which meant that the probability of the ball swinging or seaming was considerably reduced. Morever, he has yet to produce anything to rival that magnificent spell against India in lahore that promised so much. As impressive as he was in the 20-20 World Cup and in ODIs in general, he hasn't delivered an incisive spell since that game against India. Anyone watching the recent away series against England will remember how a Pakistan attack spearheaded by Gul struggled to find a way through the English defences. He just cannot intimidate or dominate batsmen yet and until he can change that particular state of affairs, he is unlikely to usurp the mantle of the latest heir to the throne of firebrand fast bowlers who play for the star and crescent. But there is plenty of time for him yet and i pray and hope he can force me to eat my words.


Sohail Tanvir will eventually be worked out by opposing batsmen. The novelty of his action will wear off and soon enough batsmen will be picking him better from his hand. I fear this will signal the beginning of the end for the lad. If there ever was a beginning, that is, in the first place in the five day game. It's very simple - if Mr. Tanvir does not learn to swing the ball back into the right hander, he'll be as useful as a hole in your sock. Left armers are only effective when they get batsmen worried about the ball coming back into them. Otherwise, when in a spot of bother, they can just leave the ball all day and get their eye in. But he remains a good option in ODIs.


Rao Iftikhar Anjum. Is he the Angus Fraser of Pakistan? A work horse who will run in all day and put in an honest effort without really requiring the good batsmen to dwell too much on how to play him. Is he the sort of bowler that comes to mind when we conjure up romantic tales of the lean mean Pakistani bowling machine. I think, and hope, not. Imagine him bowling on a flat test pitch to someone like Dhoni or a Sehwag. Absolute carnage. I imagine he might do well on early English summer wickets where his seamers may be more of a test for opposing batsmen.


So who does that leave? Rana Naved ul Hassan? A bowler who, ironically, rose to the limelight during Pakistan's last visit to India and warmed hearts with his energy, spunk and sheer audacity in taking on the famed Indian batting line-up almost all by himself and delivering in spades. But he has lost direction and, along with it, his place in the Pakistan team. I find that very difficult to understand though given his absolutely sterling form for Sussex in the English first class set-up. Together with Mushtaq Ahmed, he has been the main driving force behind Sussex's title success, yet has been unable to replicate the same form on the International stage. Very strange.


As i write these words, i feel even more depressed about our bowling resources than at the beginning of this post. We no longer have an attack capable of prising out bastmen. For all of Asif's industry and skill, the brutal truth is that he is a very 'UnPakistani' bowler who relies more on bowling line length with subtle movement rather than pace and conventional/reverse swing. You put him on a flat wicket and the difference in effectiveness is painful and obvious. Yet he is our main strike bowler and leads our pace attack. A harbinger of things to come?

What do you think?

By the way, does anyone know what happened to Anwar Ali and Jamshed Ahmed, the two architects of Pakistan's incredible victory over India in the final of the 2006 Under 19 World Cup? Read about how these two young fast bowlers defended 109 here.

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