Reverse Swing: This particular delivery, delivered from a shade wide of the crease, holding a line on off stump, drifting a shade out and then at the very last instant swinging in viciously, is already something of a legend thanks to the Younis-Akram combine.

And at its heart is a basic aerodynamic principle. What the Pakistan quicks - and the likes of Darren Gough, who have been quick to catch on to the secret - have been doing is basically simple. Keep one side of the ball scuffed, as the swing bowler used to do. But rather than shine the other side of the ball, use spit and sweat to make the opposite side slick, wet and relatively heavier than the scuffed side. By which point, aerodynamics takes over, the heavier side begins to 'fall away', that is, perceptibly slow down as opposed to the lighter side. With the result that at the very late stage, the ball moves dramatically in towards the batsman, swinging away from its natural line and taking the batsman by surprise. Delivered at a full length, the late swing defeats both the defensive jab and the drive, both strokes dictated by the off stump line, and crashes more often than not into the middle and leg stumps.