L
ate Swing

See the above video? As the commentators point out, the ball appears to have swung late. This is exactly what in cricket is called late swing.

One of the more popular theories that circulate swing bowling in cricket is that reverse swing tends to happen a lot later than conventional swing and thus is much harder to play because of the reduced reaction time. But this is just a myth as the lateral force in case of both the forms of swing bowling is the same. One suitable explanation might be the fact that since reverse swing happens at a lot higher pace than conventional swing it just appears to be happening late.

Late and lethal: reverse swing at its very best.

There have been many attempts at explaining the scientific phenomenon behind late swing but all of them have failed to achieve the desired outcome. The closest of such theories suggests that if a ball is released at a speed just above the critical speed it may slow down enough during its flight so that the boundary layer on the non-seam side reverts to a laminar state, thus creating a late movement of the ball. But experimental data suggests that the change in speed during its flight won’t have that much of a consequence. As a matter of fact, the truth is: late swing is built-in.