Swinging balls

One of the major talking points during the England-New Zealand series has been the conditions of the balls being used. In every Test they have been changed after going out of shape, and the replacement ball has often brought a clatter of wickets. In The Times, Christopher Martin-Jenkins takes a look at some of the theories behind swing, and the part the balls play.

Trent Bridge has gone through many phases as a cricket ground, notably as the epitome of the featherbed pitch in the 1930s and (according to their opponents at least) as a zippy and green seamer's paradise in the days of Richard Hadlee and Clive Rice in the 1970s and '80s.

Briefly, too, it was a good place for skiddy fast bowlers during that more recent period when the grass roots on the square were not growing deep enough. It helped James Kirtley, for example, to take eight wickets in his first Test here against South Africa in 2003, including a match-winning six for 34 in the second innings as the bounce became uneven.

Five years on it is not the pitches that are bothering batsmen, certainly not this one after only two days of use. It is the swing. More than that, it may be a swing enhanced by the impressive but also (to my eye) incongruous new stand. At cost of £8.2million, bordered by a vast new electronic scoreboard and replay screen, showing pictures that even from 100 yards away are far clearer than those on the television in my living room, it is tall enough to make George Parr's old tree look like a shrub. Whether its effect on swing is sound physics or mere speculation the fact is that until England recovered to 364 yesterday the average first-innings total here this season was 197.

James Anderson took advantage of the swing on the second day at Trent Bridge, but it was also with the bat that he made his mark. Martin Johnson, in The Daily Telegraph says that Andy Flower, the batting coach, needs an award if he’s improved Anderson’s batting.

When he came in at No 9 on Thursday evening, one explanation was that he was being shoved up the order as nightwatchman to protect Ryan Sidebottom and maybe even Monty Panesar, although it turned out that Anderson's promotion was due to Sidebottom being on the treatment table at the fall of the seventh wicket.