Swervy said:
?????
Erm..the physics comes out again here...A simple study of ballistics/projectile formulae would suggest that in order for a ball to have what us cricketers would call 'flight' or 'dip' (or a ball which initally goes above the height of the point of release then travels downards, as opposed to a ball which travels in a downward direction immediately) and for that ball to to hit ceratin spots on the pitch within 20yards of its release point ie for the ball to pitch....the ball must be bowled slowly....if it wasnt then it would not pitch within the area of the pitch...or alternatively any flight perceived by the spectator would be an illusion, in that the ball would have to have been delivered towards the ground
I dont see how arm pace has anything to do with it, its the velocity and angle the ball comes out of the hand that is important.
Oh and 70mph for Stephenson was his bowling slowly
Err, yes, I know that - 70mph is slow for Stephenson and Cairns, and any fast-medium bowler. That's the gist of what I was saying.
You look at that Cairns ball to Read in 1999 - 72.7mph, and you tell me it didn't dip, violently. You tell me that was a spectator illusion.
Similar example with many of the balls bowled at Graham Thorpe in 2000, some successful, some not, but all achieving dip at 70mph and more.
I can't quite get my head round how the projectile theory would fit in with this, but obviously it can't defy the laws. Clearly the significant thing is the point at which the vertical (downward) vector starts to kick-in and turn the path from a straight one into a curved one.
But it is not, I don't think, up for question that it is possible to achieve loop and dip at any pace, if your arm comes over fast enough, and equally has slowing action put upon it.
All the best slower-balls are bowled with the same arm-speed, be they off-breaks (common), leg-breaks (rare), back-of-the-hand (see lots of that now Ian Harvey has publicised it) or held further back in the hand (Dilhara Fernando has perfected this best). The slower-ball where the bowler slows down his arm is very, very easy to pick.
But it also goes without saying that he who has looped and dipped the ball at 80mph is yet to grace public cricket!