how does it swing like that?

March 8, 2024 6:48 PM

It is one of the most devastating weapons a fast bowler can own — but the art of swing is steeped in mystery and myths that only science can explain. Inside the science of what makes a cricket ball swing - A(ustralian)BC

The ABC News Story Lab has some brilliant multi-modal stories told in the Odyssey format, where as you scroll the graphics change. No audio but there is video/moving image.

Credits:
Reporting: David Mark
Graphics: Gabrielle Flood and Nina Maile Gordon
Digital production: Basel Hindeleh and Jonathan Hepburn
ODYSSEY FORMAT BY ABC NEWS STORY LAB

posted by freethefeet (7 comments total)

So it's a mix of science [laminar flow, Bernoulli] and woo [humidity, cloud-cover]? It's peculiar that bowler can polish one side of the ball but not legally rough up the other. Is it time to try a cross-over using a baseball in cricket and seeing how the different seam pattern can work a new sort of magic? There's been some success with GAA/ AFL international hybrid games to shake things up in the world of minority rules football.
posted by BobTheScientist at 1:34 AM on March 9 [1 favorite]

Cricket's knuckleball is heavily influenced by baseball.
posted by LemmySays at 3:04 AM on March 9

I don't know cricket and thus couldn't understand a lot of the phrases and terms but still found this article fascinating. Thank you for sharing!
posted by misskaz at 5:09 AM on March 9

Same here, my brain keeps trying to translate everything into baseball terms…pitch…curve…inside…outside
posted by gottabefunky at 9:15 AM on March 9

This reminds me...I know another American who came over to the UK for his PhD at the university where I was doing my MFA. He told me a story about the time he tried playing cricket--the ball came towards him, and he held out his hand to catch it....

...and the ball zipped right through the space where a baseball glove would have been and hit him dead center in the chest. As far as I know, he never tried playing again.
posted by Mr. Bad Example at 10:11 AM on March 9

About the issue of humidity/cloud cover, there's a hypothesis that when it's hot and sunny that causes updrafts from the ground, and that interferes with the precise combinations of laminar and turbulent airflow that enable swing. So it's not that the humidity itself is the cause, it's because the kind of days when you get useful cloud cover are also humid.
posted by vincebowdren at 8:58 AM on March 10

Apropos this, so many YouTube videos compiling 'best swing ever' seem to confuse swing with seam. Swing is movement in the air, seam is what happens after it hits the ground. Richard Hadlee could do both. His development story is fascinating. He cut down on his pace to be able to bowl long spells with much greater accuracy and precision.
posted by indianbadger1 at 11:43 AM on March 12