The pace war begins
The race to bag the crown of the fastest bowler
What is the fastest ball ever bowled in cricket? before I tell you the rumors, fans must know that ICC doesn't recognize the speed gun or speedometer set at stadiums by TV broadcasters. it, no doubt, interests the viewers but its hardly official.
"Most famous" fastest ball was bowled by Shoaib Akhtar of Pakistan against England in a 2003 world cup match at Newlands ground in Capetown. 161.3 kilometers per hour or 100 miles/hr approximatively.. Interestingly, the very next ball from Wasim Akram again showed the same reading, and thus - the confusion!
Were these the men who bowled the fastest deliveries ever bowled??
In fact, past bowlers claim that similar effort-ed bowling by same bowler at a New Zealand venue shows much lower speed on the measurement device as compared to the delivery bowled in South African conditions. Oz bowling legend and former Pakistan coach Jeff Lawson was himself found to be doubting the speedometer for reading 160.7 the other night when some of the other deliveries seemed to be much faster. But, lets not take nothing away from Shoaib Akhtar, Brett Lee,Kemar Roach,Dale Steyn,Shaun Tait and Shane Bond. They, in themselves, are a spectacle to watch in action cause fast bowling is a tough job, not many can do.
Distant competitors eh??
The Australia Pakistan encounter on Friday witnessed the spectacular comeback of the ‘wild thing’ as mentioned by Michael Clark. For a bowler who had to take some very tough decisions like quitting first class cricket and going for rehab for stress reduction in the past two years en route to his reappearance in the scene, his performance without doubt is a herculean one. If I had said two years ago that tait will be back with a bang, many people would have laughed at me. Especially after the hype that he got before his only third test cap and was hit for plenty and went wicketless(was against india,will anyone forget that match??). When one observes closely, his return was not a big surprise like rain in the Sahara but, a well calculated and thoroughly planned one.After the debacle in the test match he knew he was down on confidence and took a much needed lay off to bolster his morale and slowly made his way back by starting to hit the deck in the Ford ranger cup. Though he has had some highs and lows since then, he was slowly improving at what he was always good at bowling fast!! He improved his pace slowly from 145 kmph on an average to 153 kmph on an average in a span of three months!! And, the big bash completed this wonderful fairy tale where he had batsmen shivering to face him first up. Tait has undoubtedly become a panzer in the oz team though it is just one match since the return, he has shown what he is made off.The icing to this cake like mouth watering story came, when he put all his strength to clock 160.7 on the speedometer, and not a single delivery carried with it a velocity less than 150 kmph in the T20!!
Cricket Australia has had a great part to do in the making of this ‘aborigine boomerang’ investing loads on money, knowing what his pace can do. Where as other countries will be vary of the fact that they will have to spend money on the cricketers who are hit by tait!!Not so long ago De Villiers was out hit wicket thanks to a tait cannon that hit him on his stomach at 156 kmph. De Villiers fell on the wicket groaning in pain and was ruled out for 2 matches!!Though CA can boast of having been the designer of Shaun Tait ,it has somewhat had an admonishing attitude towards him.When he was down and out,CA forbid him from participating in the IPL and added insult to injury by scrapping him from the contracted players list!!
But as one says all’s well that ends well.Tait is back for all of us to see his wonders.
He is definitely a competitor for akthar’s record if not a certain winner in the near future. With Akthar planning to return into the cricketing fold sometime soon it will be a pleasure to watch if he can make his stand clear ahead of Tait on his comeback.There is another lethal participant in this contest whose speed we all know has done wonders in the past!!None other than binga!!Each time he has gone out with injury he keeps coming back faster and better.With an IPL return on the cards a three way clash of pace titans has been kept on the platter for all of us to relish!!We soon have a contest at hand without doubt.
Who's the fastest??We'll know soon!!
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