The term has also been adopted into football commentary, in which context it describes a cross of the ball kicked so that it curves in toward the goal.
The angle of the seam to the direction of motion produces an aerofoil effect as the ball moves through the air, pushing it to the leg side.
A particularly effective delivery is the inswinging yorker, which can cause a batsman to attempt to pull his feet out of the line of the ball, leaving him vulnerable to being bowled, or out lbw if he is too slow.
In the final match of the 1983 World Cup, Balwinder Sandhu famously clean bowled Gordon Greenidge with an inswinger to which the batsman had shouldered arms.
Some famous bowlers to bowl inswingers include Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Mohammad Asif, James Anderson, and Stuart Broad.