Is swing bowling dying?

[EnterTheVoid]

Flat pit was no deterrent to Ishant Sharma, who swung the ball yards in the Mohali test Remember his spell in Perth ? That was pure heaven. One would witness such a spell once in a decade , if not longer

[graphic23]

Flat pit was no deterrent to Ishant Sharma, who swung the ball yards in the Mohali test Remember his spell in Perth ? That was pure heaven. One would witness such a spell once in a decade , if not longer

Flintoff bowled a brilliant spell vs. Kallis last year too. There are better spells and more spells that deserve to be higher on the list - not taking away anything from Ishant.

[Mr. Wicket]

Flat pit was no deterrent to Ishant Sharma, who swung the ball yards in the Mohali test Remember his spell in Perth ? That was pure heaven. One would witness such a spell once in a decade , if not longer

Ishant's Perth spell wasn't about swing bowling. That was an example of a bowler hitting the deck hard, using the seam perfectly and taking advantage of the Fremantle winds. The balls that troubled Ponting most were those that combined seam and swing. The LBW appeal turned down by Bowden swung in a bit, hit the pitch and then jagged back a good deal, and Ponting was beaten several times by deliveries (and eventually got out to one) that swung back in at first, then hit the seam and straightened. Ishant does swing it in a bit, but he's not an out and out swing bowler as are the ones we're discussing here. His style is more like Gillespie where he can swing it but gets most of his wickets through seam movement when hitting the deck.

[Mr. Wicket]

Come to think of it besides Kapil' date=' Vaas, and Botham I can't recall any other bowler in recent times having a long, successful career. Other swing bowlers like Imran, Akram, Waqar, Donald etc. had either raw pace or reverse swing to fall back upon when conditions did not suit swing. Even Kapil and Vaas had to develop incredible accuracy and cutters to survive and Botham had the luxury of playing in England for more than half his career. Swing as a standalone weapon is just not good enough.[/quote'] We did see a couple of truly outstanding, world class swingers in the last decade - Fanie de Villiers (who was unfortunate to only debut soon before his 30th birthday) and Damien Fleming who was perpetually a game away from the injury list. Neither hit 100 test wickets, but their records when they retired were just outstanding and it's a shame they played so little. The only other swing bowler we've seen since with a prolonged career has been Matthew Hoggard - 248 wickets isn't bad (although I would not put him in the same class as either De Villiers or Fleming).

[The Outsider]

^ Aaah yes, completely forgot about Hoggard and Fannie De Villiers. Fleming suffered because of injuries and also because of the advent of Gillespie and Lee. Reiffel was also a pretty decent swing bowler.

[Mr. Wicket]

I always put Reiffel more in the seam and line+length category; bit of a poor man's McGrath with the ball (although a very solid and underrated batsman)... maybe Bichel version 1? Fleming shouldn't have suffered because of Lee (even though he was ignored for the golden boy from NSW a few times); he was a far superior bowler to Lee in the longer form of the game and an absolute star in almost all conditions. I remember his spell against India at Wankhede in the 96 WC as one of the best displays of quality swing bowling I've seen in ODIs; Tendulkar made him look ordinary and against every other batsman he was lethal.

[hassan_113]

Excellent posts from Salil- even here in England, they've seemingly forgotten about Hoggard!! But de Villiers destroyed Pakistan and England I'm sure and Fleming took a hat-trick v Pakistan and was a member of the 1999 WC team that won in England.

[Lord]

Flat pit was no deterrent to Ishant Sharma, who swung the ball yards in the Mohali test Remember his spell in Perth ? That was pure heaven. One would witness such a spell once in a decade , if not longer

in Mohali,it was reverse swing,not conventional one,if u r talking about the one against aussies at perth,it was more about hitting the deck n getting seam movement