Cricket: Secret lies in the swing

IT WAS an extraordinary afternoon. Lancashire had won an important toss, but were amazed to find Derbyshire had 50 runs on the board without loss after 13 overs bowled under a clear sky. Then, the clouds blew in, the ball began to swing, and soon Lancashire took seven wickets for 11 runs in 55 balls.

The bowlers first had the encouragement of Michael Slater being leg before playing across the line, and then a rather lazy stroke by Kim Barnett, turning 70 for 0 into 70 for 2.

Ian Austin and Peter Martin each had the confidence of a wicket and now, as the sun disappeared, Martin began to wobble the ball alarmingly. The cloud induced vital swing as the young and inexperienced, but talented, Derbyshire middle order let the pressure get to them.

They forgot it was a 60-over match, which allows the batsman to play normal cricket for longer than usual in the one-day game. They now were consumed with the urge to get a move on, deceived, perhaps, by the apparent ease of Slater and Barnett's start and not helped by the wretched clouds.

A satisfactorily definitive answer to the age-old and nagging question, why does the ball swing, has never been found. Over the years it has been addressed by learned professors, humble seam bowlers, armchair wafflers and just about everyone in-between. The answer is probably a little bit of this and a little bit of that.

Clouds are one ingredient, humidity is another, the different properties of each new ball - out of a box of six, three may swing and three may not - and the peculiar ability of some bowlers to see them labelled as natural swingers.

All these factors play a part, and I am talking about orthodox swing, nor reverse swing, which relies on weighting one side of an old ball with sweat so it is tugged by the atmosphere.

The ball swung on Saturday, but on Sunday, when the clouds were higher, it went straight on, and Kevin Dean, Derbyshire's left arm seamer, who has swung it all over the place this summer, could not move it an inch and panicked. Ask Gloucestershire's Mike Smith, what makes it swing and he will tell you without hesitation that it is the ball. You pays your money... but Derbyshire lost the toss.