Science of hitting sixes

This is an era of modern cricket, where cricket leagues are a major money maker to the cricket boards, broadcasters and players. An era of small grounds, flat pitches and good quality of bats, where neither the ball speed - whether it is 140 km/h or 150 km/h- nor the spin of the ball matters. Batsmen can easily hit the ball over the fence, nevertheless.


                                                       Photo by demon freeman from free images

In this era of shorter format, hitting the ball for six has become very important. As opposed to the 80s when coaches used to say, “don’t hit the ball in the air”, hitting big has now become an essential part of team’s strategy. Audiences love to see the game of power and speed.

But is it so easy to hit a ball for six? 

Can only power help hit a six?

How are the batsmen able to hit 110 meter long hit?

Well, science can give the answers of these questions.

Hello everyone, today we will discuss about the science of hitting sixes. Let us look at the key elements that come into the action while hitting a power shot -

Momentum

Momentum refers to the quantity of motion of an object. It is the product of mass and velocity of an object.

P = mv

When it comes to the ball striking to bat, we consider the change in momentum.

Change in momentum = Momentum of the ball after striking to the bat – Momentum of the ball before striking the bat.


How far the ball reaches in the air after striking the bat will depend on the momentum.

When it comes to playing the ball behind the wicket, guiding the ball through the bat can make the ball reach to the boundary by using pace of the ball. But playing the ball down the ground needs to generate the momentum.

There are different ways to generate the momentum for hitting the spinners and playing down the ground.

Backlift and downswing




As we know momentum of the ball depends on how hard the bat hits the ball. We see batsmen like Yuvraj Singh and Hardik Pandya having a high backlift. A high backlift makes the batsman either to increase the downswing or initiate the downswing early to meet the ball at the right time.

Better the downswing of the bat, harder the impact of bat on ball. So here is the technique -

Higher the backlift, better the downswing, harder the impact.



Grip of the bat also plays an important role for backlift and downswing. Holding the handle of the bat from the top improves the backlift and downswing. Batsmen like Adam Gilchrist , Kieron Polard and many other West Indian batsmen used to have a grip on the bat from the top.

If a batsman wants to hit the ball over the fence, these small adjustments in the technique can be brought into the game.

But batsmen usually have poor control while driving with high backlift and upper grip.

Timing

Timing is the key factor to play any shot- be it a four, six or taking singles. Timing is the difference between hitting a ball for six or getting caught out. To well time a ball, impact at the bat should be at sweet spot of the bat. 

Sweet spot of the bat is the location where least or zero vibration is generated across all dimensions during the impact. Sweet spot is present at about 150 mm from tip of the bat. Sweet spot allows maximum energy transfer to the ball, hence better the momentum.

Batsmen like Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma and Kane Williamson in the modern era are blessed with timing. If you have better timing you don’t need to hit the ball with power. These batsmen hit every shot so beautifully with their elusive skills.

Maintaining shape

Maintaining the shape of the body during and after the shot is very important. The concept lies in directing the center of mass of the batsman’s body along the shot, so that you have a better control on the shot. The center of mass should not fall away from the shot. Hitting a high pitched ball is as technical as playing a cover drive. Coaches rightly say “a lofted shot is an extension of the drive”.

A follow through result from the downswing is just as important. Your arms should follow the angle of shot during follow through. Holding the shape is also important to prevent the injury.

Bat weight

This is the last but not the least. We used to see MS Dhoni taking a heavy bat in the final overs. Heavy bat gives more power to the shot in comparison to the light bat, hence the ball travels farther. But there is a technical flow with the heavy bat - as weight of the bat increases, downswing decreases.

A study reveals that light bats can be swung 10% faster than the heavy bats and a ball travels 7.5% faster. Whereas, heavy bats are 1% more powerful than the light bats.

The end result is that heavy bats are more impactful if they swing at the same speed as light bats.

So, this was all the science, tricks and techniques of all those eye catching and astonishing hits. Some other factors like environmental conditions (humidity, direction of the wind etc.), dimensions of the ground also come into play, but those are not major things to consider.

Here is the trivia for today:-

Who was the first batsman to hit 6 consecutive sixes in an over in one day internationals?  

Comment below in the comment section.

Hope you enjoyed reading it and learned something new !