A reverse sweep is a cross-batted sweep shot played in the opposite direction to the standard sweep, thus instead of sweeping the ball to the leg side, it is swept to the off side, towards backward point or third man. The batsman may also swap his hands on the bat handle to make the stroke easier to execute. The batsman may also bring his back foot to the front therefore making it more like a traditional sweep. The advantage of a reverse sweep is that it effectively reverses the fielding positions and thus is very difficult to set a field to.
It was first regularly played in the 1970s by the Pakistani batsman Mushtaq Mohammad, though Mushtaq's brother Hanif Mohammad is sometimes credited as the inventor. Cricket coach Bob Woolmer has been credited with popularising the stroke.
The most famous example of a reverse sweep backfiring was in the case of Mike Gatting of England against Allan Border of Australia in the 1987 Cricket World Cup final. With England on course for victory Gatting attempted a reverse sweep off the first delivery bowled by Border, top-edged the ball and was caught by wicket-keeper Greg Dyer. England subsequently lost momentum and eventually lost the match.
Because of the unorthodox nature of hand and body position,
it is often difficult to get a lot of power behind a reverse sweep; in many
situations, the intention is to glance or cut the ball to the backward leg
area. However, in rare occasions, players have been able to execute reverse
sweeps for a six. Kevin Pietersen, who pioneered switch hitting is adept at this, but one could
argue that the resulting shot is basically a sweep rather than a reverse sweep.
A more 'classic example' of such a shot would be Yusuf
Pathan's six off Robin Peterson.