Hitting Against the Spin: How Cricket Really Works

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Uneven in places: the acknowledgements say ‘if not for the pandemic it would have been a better book’ and I think that’s true.

In their path-breaking book, Nathan Leamon and Ben Jones use data to show that many of our preconceptions are false and reveal astonishing new insights into international cricket.Hitting Against the Spin' is an object lesson in how to use data and analytics to elucidate the science and structure. The book makes you look at cricket in ways most laymen wouldn't have looked at and has facts and stats that might stun you. He might as well have been talking about himself - a Maths graduate and professor who ended up as the analytical brains behind the 2019 title winning England team. Only criticism was boring and tiresome final chapters on the IPL and PSL as these chapters will date very quickly, provide little insight to take away with for future thinking and sort of filler stories.

A good analyst isn't just good at data crunching but also at weaving stories with those data points. An example looks at the importance, or not, of bowlers maintaining a good length as opposed to a full length. Love how this covers both Test and T20 cricket though, even if I'd have wanted even more of the latter as, currently, it takes up just 25-30% of the book. Test cricket is effectively a series of individual battles, the accumulated results of which decide the outcome of the game. As someone who is a great fan of cricket and has a large knowledge of cricket it was rare to find a book that challenged my perceptions of how the game operated.

One way of viewing this book is as cricket's A Brief History of Time , a layman's guide to deep complexity, an act of communication as much as one of science. I’d like to see a second edition which fixed those issues and was slightly friendlier to the layperson. I only occasionally found myself confused, and overall it’s a really good read for anyone who’s interested in his cricket is developing. Lots of interesting data-based insights (eg which grounds favour bowling first, the efficacy of different batting strokes and bowling variations against each other, the changes T20 has brought to the game, and yes, the advantage of hitting against the spin) which makes for a fun read.

Hitting Against the Spin is the story of that data, and what it can tell us about how cricket really works. Eoin Morgan’s foreword confirmed my expectations about the content, but also convinced me that I would like to read on, so the decision to invest was made. It's focus is on using economics-style quantitative analysis to explain trends and developments in modern cricket. But with this lack of attention to detail in the book, it is very hard to enjoy, and I find myself putting it down again after a few pages and a few charts. Every now and again a new book slips under my radar and, very occasionally, that is because I have allowed it do so.This is really well-written; despite moving from simple to complex quickly, the explanations are good enough that you rarely have to re-read anything. Some of the graphs are pretty pointless whilst some of them are misleading (the graph on page 280 annoyed me). I do feel I know more about the game - I didn't even realize there was a dearth of left-handed batters in India for example and looking into those things is, to this cricket nerd at least, a fascinating diversion into, with apologies to football, this most beautiful game.