There is a new sports star that recently joined the club of fastest bowlers with deliveries at more than 160 kph. The Australian paceman Mitchell Starc created a new record and added it into the Test Cricket history. Starc bowled the fastest delivery on the third day of the second test against New Zealand at WACA Ground in Perth. The fourth ball of his 21st over was clocked at 160.4 kph(99.7 miles per hour ) and a hapless Ross Taylor faced it.
Before Starc, there were only four men of standing who have officially been recorded with deliveries at more than 160 kph, but none of those deliveries were in Test cricket.
However, Coach Craig McMillan was not convinced that it was a 160.4 kph ball and he questioned the accuracy of the reading. He also suggested that it might have been the result of a technical fault in the broadcast van.
McMillan once faced a 161 kph delivery from Pakistan’s famous bowler Shoaib Akhtar also popularly known as Rawalpindi Express and McMillan insisted that it looked like a delivery that was closer to 150 that 160 kph.
“I was surprised when it came up on the TV… maybe someone in the truck was having a bit of fun,” he said.
“The delivery came out of nowhere. It looked pretty similar to a lot of the other deliveries throughout the day that were closer to 150 than 160.
“I’m not sure whether the wrong button was pushed… you’d have to ask Rosco if it felt 10k quicker than every other delivery he faced.”
Mitchell Starc took it sportingly and did not comment on the specific ball, but he did mention that it was one of his fastest spells.
“It was nice to have rhythm and have the ball coming out nicely,” he said. “It felt really good and I was trying to bowl fast.”
Starc is not being worried about McMillan’s comments stated, “I’m happy for him to face me in the nets tomorrow if he wants”.
See The List Of Top Fast Five Bowlers:
- The most recent to join the club is Starc with the fourth ball of his 21st over to Ross Taylor at 160.4 kilometres per hour.
- Shoaib Akhtar holds the record with a 161.3 kph thunderbolt in a one-day match against England at Newlands in 2003. He is indeed the Rawalpindi Express.
- The Australian cricketer Shaun Tait was recorded at 161.1 kph against England that was 3rd fastest ball in the history of cricket.
- The former Australian International cricketer Brett Lee was recorded at 161.1 kph in a Test against the West Indies.
- The only other bowler to reach the mark was Australian firebrand Jeff Thomson, who is widely considered the fastest bowler in cricket history, reached 160.6 kph during a study into fast bowling at the WACA Ground in 1976.
16 Nov 2015
Avni S. Singh