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Swing Bowling Stocks

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Englands bowling in the second innings of this test, was very impressive. Sure they were helped by a very well shined ball, but the movement they were getting was absolutely crazy. Their bowlers are unpredictable

Australia has too many of the same type of bowler. Mitchell Johnson, Peter Siddle and Doug Bollinger all have the same strategy. Bowl as quick as you can, and if that dosnt get wickets then bowl bouncers and huff and puff at the batsman

Sure we used to have Brett Lee back in the day, who did this job well, but that's only because he was surrounded by Mcgrath, Warne and Gillespie. We all saw what happened to Lee once these guys retired. The huff and puff angry fast bowlers are designed to add that little bit extra to a bowling attack, and are not meant to be the main focus of the bowling line-up. We become overly predictable when we have 4 bowlers with the same angry tactics

Do we have any players in this country, that are capable of moving both the new and old ball in a number of directions. The two that come to mind are Clint Mckay and Trent Copeland. From the shield form that i have seen from them, they are more than capable of moving the odd ball. Ryan Harris also showed the ability to move the ball around.

In an ideal pace bowling lineup, firstly you have 3 paceman (most pitches require a spin option). I would say that if we were being serious about our bowling, there would only be room for one of Johnson, Siddle and Bollinger, unless one of them magically learnt to move the ball a long way. A much more threatening bowling attack would consist of

Johnson (Agressive, Lee-esque role)
Harris - Bowls at a steady pace, and moves the ball
Copeland/Mckay - Forget about pace, get the bloody ball moving
Agressive Spinner - We want our spinner to take wickets, none of this fast and low off spin crap

As Steve Waugh (i think it was him) once said "I would much rather face Brett Lee at 145km/h, then Glenn Mcgrath at 130km/h"

For those that know domestic cricket, and the upcoming ranks a lot better, are there any other bowlers out there capable of moving the ball ?
 

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England have a big thing about keeping the ball dry, to the extent that they made Cook chief ball shiner because he had the least sweaty hands in the team. They also bowl cross seam from time to time, partly to make the bounce variable, but also to rough the ball up a bit.

Bowling tightly also helps with the condition of the ball: if it's not getting smashed around the ground it's more likely to keep its shape, and the shine will be easier to maintain. The same principle applies to how the bowlers deliver the ball, if they are all capable of keeping the seam upright then you're more able to control the level of abrasion. If someone like Johnson is slinging the ball down at all angles then you're not going to be able to keep the shiny side of the ball in such good condition.

Obviously a huge part of it is technical. Hilfenhaus, for example, may swing the ball, but he does so out of the hand, like a 'tiring Matthew Hoggard' as Mikey Holding put it. That's going to be easier to play than someone like Jimmy Anderson who gets the ball to go late. Sky highlighted the fact that Hilfenhaus collapses more in his action than the upright Anderson, something that he needs to work on if the ball is to swing later in its flight.

Wrist position is important as well. Any half decent swinger knows that, but it's still difficult to perfect.

Thus ends my armchair analysis.
 
Didn't Australia recruit Troy Cooley because he was the zen master of teaching reverse swing bowling following the 2005 Ashes? Surely it wasn't all down to mint lollies?
 
England with Broad injury and Finn's poor form actually paved way for England to bring in two of their better bowlers. England actually got better after the 2nd test.

Now England has got a delima that how are they going to fit in Tremlett when Broad comes back. Anderson, Tremlett and Bresnan was like the perfect 3 man seam attack. One with swing, other with bounce and aggression and the 3rd one with crafty control.
 
Australia nominally now have more true swing bowlers (Harris, Hilfenhaus and Watson) than we did in the McGrath and Gillespie era who both didn't really swing it. But that is conventional swing.

The issue is how much and how early England got it to reverse in Adelaide, Melbourne and Sydney. I like Mark Waugh are just amazed how bowlers cant stand the seam up.
 
England with Broad injury and Finn's poor form actually paved way for England to bring in two of their better bowlers. England actually got better after the 2nd test.

Now England has got a delima that how are they going to fit in Tremlett when Broad comes back. Anderson, Tremlett and Bresnan was like the perfect 3 man seam attack. One with swing, other with bounce and aggression and the 3rd one with crafty control.

When India are touring England I fell we will need to have the strongest Bowling attack possible. I wouldnt be opposed to moving Prior to 6 now Collingwood is gone as I feel he is a good enough batsmen then having Broad at 7, Bresnan at 8, Swann at 9, Tremlett at 10 and Anderson at 11. Similar to Australias team with Smith at SCG. Broad and Bresnan are both very very good batters with averages of 29 and 32. Swann and Tremlett are also pretty Handy with Anderson being your typical Tailender. This allows us to have 4 very different but all quality fast bowlers with of course Swann.
 
England with Broad injury and Finn's poor form actually paved way for England to bring in two of their better bowlers. England actually got better after the 2nd test.

Now England has got a delima that how are they going to fit in Tremlett when Broad comes back. Anderson, Tremlett and Bresnan was like the perfect 3 man seam attack. One with swing, other with bounce and aggression and the 3rd one with crafty control.

If I was England I'd just go Broad straight swap with Collingwood. Collingwood wasn't contributing much with the bat anyway. The tail might be a tad long but Broad is handy with the bat (averages 30), Bresnan can stick around a bit and Swann is also not too bad. Broad probably is a perfect no. 8 batsman but Tremlett, Anderson and Bresnan is a very balanced attack I reckon and you wouldn't want to break it up after the success they've just had.
 

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Didn't Australia recruit Troy Cooley because he was the zen master of teaching reverse swing bowling following the 2005 Ashes? Surely it wasn't all down to mint lollies?

like jimthegreat said in another thread, its pretty f'n hard to get a ball in condition to reverse prodigiously like that when you've got mitchell johnson wanging it down with the seam every which way but up and roughing up both sides. a feature of the english bowling was meticulous seam control keeping the chosen side in much better condition than we are capable of
 
Didn't Australia recruit Troy Cooley because he was the zen master of teaching reverse swing bowling following the 2005 Ashes? Surely it wasn't all down to mint lollies?

And now David Saker has re-upped with England for another three years.
 
I'm still not entirely sure why Johnson can't learn to bowl a leg cutter. I mean, he's already scrambling the seam all over the place, so he sure as hell isn't going to get much swing. So he may as well learn to push the seam in one direction and hope he gets a bit of movement off the pitch.
 

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