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Best Fast bowling

60K views 168 replies 44 participants last post by  Sportsgeek 
#1 ·
There are days in cricket where by luck fast bowlers of a particular team makes impact in cricket. So i think pakistan had their most successful years of fast bowling in 1992-1994, west indies 1984, england 1998, australia 1980, south africa 1995 and finally new zealand is the only country nowdays in cricket who somehow tries fastbowling (without swing)!
 
#133 · (Edited)
Terminator Program Debug Virus ....
Code intitilization 'brainyvita'
There is a small award for nerdy protocol.
Every other fast bowlers tend to bowl unthinkably most of the times....
But there are few who apply their mind to their application...the zen.
So the winner is...
1) Wasim akram
2) Anil kumble
3) Shane warne
Their minds their experiments! Bespectacles! What goes on in their brain processor programs is purely a fascination!
 
#135 ·
Mostly spinners legspin and offspin are bowlers who have slow shoulder bowling arm rotation, and they impart spin with their fingers. I think that shane warne and anil kumble bowled little bit quicker with their bowling arm like speed varying from 55kmph to 91kmph. So the modern cricket sees new generation fast spinners! And shane warne doesn't seem a slowest bowler of the world.
 
#138 · (Edited)
Ok, everyone has a say and not everyone likings are same.
But cricket is a entertaining sport. I think fast bowlers have a lot of competition even for milli seconds. But i doubt the speed gun, as visibly one can make out who is the fastest!
As i remember only once allan donald had reached highest speed of 151 kmph i.e. 93 mph. And ain bishop had reached speed of 149 kmph. So i think its untrue that some fast bowlers had reached speed above 93 mph. Cause if bowlers start bowling speeds above 151kmph, then it would be hardly visible for batsmen to play. Even the television viewers would not be able to spot the fast bowlers above 93 mph deliveries. So its fake / joke that fast bowlers bowling 99 mph!!!

For a fast bowler to reach above 151 kmph, there are many factors like fast bowling arm, quick run up, quick bowling action, speeding through air...! Many fast bowlers bowling above 93 mph would easily get physical strain and injuries. So it would be possible only by a supreme athlete.
I remember watching the england county matches of 1995 - 1998, their fast bowlers in seaming conditions only reach speeds of 128 kmph!
P.S.- i hope my bowling speed atleast should be 131 kmph.
 
#139 · (Edited)
A famous fast bowler i had seen in my childhood days....steve elworthy a fast medium who swinged the white ball, and his matches against sri lankan jaya surya batting seems as if the deliveries were hit off half volley. Like sanath jayasurya was infact a lawn tennis player who copied every shots of a wimbledon and played in cricket!!!
So is the season ball is as light as tennis ball?
I read that sachin tendulkar too was fond of playing lawn tennis at the age of 13!!! So are the strokes of sachin tendulkar batting are infact shots of wimbledon, like playing square and double-handed pull strokes???
So i think batsmen of 1990's used to practise lawn tennis shots in indoor clubs and then used to play cricket batting! They were tennis player first then a cricketeer! LOL
If you study sachin tendulkars' batting, he in micro second adjusts himself on the crease. Most batsmen move forward and backwards, but sachin moves sideways along the crease line like a lawn tennis player! His adaptive batting against courtney walsh's bowlings and australian pacemen!!! Thats fastest reflexes and eyesight, hand eye co-ordination learnt only from playing wimbledon!
 
#140 · (Edited)
I did some study and came to know that fast seam bowling traditionally comes from england. During the time period of 1980s to 1985s many english tall fast bowlers came into limelight, but due to injury had a shortened international career. But still played first class cricket and took many a wickets. Some of the likes were neil foster, greg thomas, jonathan agnew, richard ellison, les taylor, paul allot, arnie sidebottom.
They were very tall in height and had a long bowling arm reach. How come they had grueisome injuries in cricket? Their positions were then taken by stock bowlers like devon malcolm, ain botham, graham dilley, gladstone small, chris lewis, angus fraser, phil defreites over the years!
If you view the yester years test matches of england in 1981 to 1985 time period, the indian batsmen seem very weak of short stature but still perfectly placing the deliveries in gaps and scoring runs against fast english seamers. It seems modern day fast bowlers are nowhere near the fast seamers of england of that time. What has changed though the indian batsmen with modern fitness nowdays hit more sixes have now become better.
 
#141 · (Edited)
I was watching some days back highlights of this wonderfull test match.
2nd Test: England v Australia at Birmingham, Aug 4-7, 2005 | Cricket Scorecard | ESPN Cricinfo
In this match there is cool performance of fast bowling by steve harmison and andrew flintoff. The pitch seems cool with good bounce and the ball too seems real season ball. The deliveries after pitching at good length skids towards the batsmen at good bounce. So the tailenders aussies bat with tricks to score runs. Some deliveries of andrew flintoff seem very quick like a fast paceman and one hits to the elbow of bret lee. This seems the last aussie vs english test match were some good entertaining cricket was played like the 1995-1999 years!

Funny that when i was watching this match it seemed to me that it was infact played in year 1999. This match says that if real season ball is used then the fast bowler height should be above six feet and high arm reach. English bowlers like dominic cork and darren gough are short height fast bowlers. In some matches they might had raised their heights, but in most of their career matches they are just 5feet 10inches. So dominic cork and darren gough bowling the ball takes more time to reach the batsman's end. And most deliveries skid on the pitch. But high height bowlers like steve harmison and andrew flintoff bowl with speed and ball reaches quickly towards the batsman's end. And also get bounce off the wicket. But still the batsmen never gave away their wickets over such fast bowling. And funnily they gave their wickets to slow spinners.
 
#142 ·
I think the worlds successfull bowlers in cricket mentioned in the top lists are successfull because they are magicians!!!
Like fast bowlers are many in this world but no one makes it to international cricket tests ODIs.
Waqar younis, andy roberts, nantie haywards, michael holdings, kapil dev, wasim akram....etc had in common just five step run ups. And a slow bowling arm but still the ball after pitching used to make a high impact to the batsmen pads, helmets and bats. So they baffled the batsmen in uncertainty and got many a wickets in shear speed. Even their swing is like 'practical magic!'
 
#143 ·
Yess i had seen in a latest T20 match between india vs pakistan, mhd sami had bowled a beamer to v.kohli which seemed like clocking 99mph. The white ball used in that match seemed like covered with white powder which made a puff when it hit v.kohli's helmet. The delivery was so fast and cleverly bowled that v.kohli didn't even knew when it even hit the helmet!!!
 
#145 · (Edited)
I was reading about new zealand fast bowlers of the modern cricket, and i found that since 2000, there have been very few debuts in their side. Their fast bowlers like chris martin, mills, j.franklin are said to be slow medium fast bowlers. Though their height and bowling action seem quick. Even 1996 fast bowler simon doull is said to be a slow medium bowler. Their only fast bowler after richard hadlee is said to have been shane bond.
So i have to pressume that after the 1982 england's fastest bowlers, the modern day bowlers are slow. How can one calculate if a bowler is fast or not, after leg glance the fastest bowlers deliveries race towards the boundaries quick.
The modern fast bowlers i think the more they are taller the more slower they are. Like nathan bracken who uses the pitch seam conditions but in one dayers had wicketkeeper keeping like a spinner. Other tall bowlers like v.prasad, j.srinath, cameron cuffy etc run in slow with a long run-up and bowl very slow in their odd test matches were they never took much wickets. While there are some exceptions like c.ambrose and c.walsh. But i think the most fastest bowlers are those who are of mid height like just 5'8''. They have very quick pace run-up and bowl a good wicket taking line length.
I was viewing some yester years sharjah matches of 1988 of sri lanka bowlers. Their bowlers height was much more than viv richards, so sri lankan fast bowlers like a.mel, ratnayake etc were very tall 6'2'' but with slow run-up and seaming bowling techniques.
Then what if the actual height of waqar younis is 5'7'' and other pakistani team mates average height is 5'3''. Sometimes i think shoiab akhtar height in his early career days seems just 5'6''. And newcomer cheema height 5'5''.
So does that mean fast bowlers require agility and quickness, then a shorter man runs up much quicker and bowls much quick.
It also occurs to many times that watching fast bowling of shoiab akhtar and shane bond is quite similar. There seems to be hindrance in the human eyes that we assume that they are bowling fast. Infact if you see correctly both are very slow bowlers bowling some deliveries very slow! You might be thinking that i am talking foolish, but really a good batsman can easily hit on the bowling of shoiab akhtar and shane bond.
I like instead bowling of paul jarvis who had whippy action and his yorkers used to rock the batsmen. Here in this england vs india 1993 tour he is seen bowling...! He could be an ideal coach too and could seam fast as well.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CrXTkg94jPI&feature=youtube_gdata_player
 
#146 · (Edited)
In my cricket playing days(in coaching clubs) of 2001, i had experimented in reverse swing bowling. In this simple bowling action with an old ball i used to obtain swing on the wetted side of the ball.
But just yesterday i again tried reverse swing bowling practise and it really swinged inwards from a rough side of an old ball like waqar younis describes....

Vid0002 - YouTube

Vid0003 - YouTube



In this above video, it seems that the season ball is somewhat huge in size. Whereas real season ball as seen on tv in matches seems small in size. There was a scene in some match where tony greig was holding a ball in his fingers and even pressing on the leather. The leather infact moved inward after pressing as if the ball was soft. The season ball which is available in indian sports shops is very hard leather doesn't presses and large in size too!!!

Other best swing bowling techniques that i like is Inswinging bowling of imran khan and Outswing bowling of ian botham.
 
#148 · (Edited)
Glenn Mccgrath his career from 1994 to 2005, he single handedly tremorised many a sides. Many batsmen like sachin tendulkar, brian lara, n.hussain, inzaman ul haq, yousuf yohanna had hard times batting against his bowling. Even NZ, SA and minnows bangladesh used to falter against good bowling of his. He wasn't a swing bowler but a seamer paceman. When he retired the batsmen got a respite. But if there is no quality cricket the games seem one sided. And if there is no sport there is no game after all.
Glenn mcgrath reminds me of thwack cricket!!! He used to knock down the ball hard on pitch, and the west indies batsmen just placed their bats and thwack it went for a four!!!!
Might i had debuted in around 2004, i had played against him.
 
#149 · (Edited)
Cricket Ball Rules | eHow.com

As you read this article its said in it that according to cricket rule book, a season ball is made up of a small sized cork ball covered by two leather covering halves sewn such the seam is raised.

This reminds me of the match australia versus south africa world cup matches

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mqwriv538UY&feature=youtube_gdata_player


(exciting)such ball is used, exteriorly it seems a soft ball but as sa pacemen steve elworthy ricocheted cartwheeled stumps which he impacted the inner cork ball. Such bowlds are not even possible if we threw the ball towards the stumps!

In india the season ball doesn't have a small cork ball inside, it has layers of cork like material and exterior a hard leather.
While in the sa vs australia match lance klusenor just flicked with the bottom bat and ball ricocheted to the boundary hence it seems the ball used is soft exterior but the inner cork rebounds it to far away.
Whereas indian season ball are hard to hit for a six.
 
#150 · (Edited)
Yesterday i was watching a program showcasing bob willis fast bowling. His run-up was of 18 strides. His bowling had no swing and no seam either. Just pitching hard bowling on the turf and variations in angle. Bob willis bowling action seems mediocre but the action packed scenario looks cool. His height seems unnaturally very high, the english bobbies helmet comes at his neck, so you might imagine how tall he must had been. Perhaps 6'9'' his bowling arm too might be coming from a height. Unlike shoiab akhtar who is just as similar height to sachin tendulkar, whereas small height sunil gavaskar infact played tall bob willis with no helmet. Just casual cricket gear, no elbow guard, no chest guard. So i think the cricket at those times might had been older mens game. Like veteran cricketeers only of the age above 30 with greying hairs were allowed to play cricket at international level. In some other programs bob willis was referred to as a stock bowler.
Funny the narrator said that in bob willis days the batsmen of the opposite team like west indies till the ninth batsman never gave away their wickets easily. So bob willis had to strive for taking his 325 test wickets. Even taking a six wicket a innings was a difficult task. Bob willis then i saw used to bowl in such a way as to beat the edge of the batsman bat defense. Either a nick towards the slips, wicket keeper or a inward bowled! The batmen then cause of this tense line n length bowling of his used to mishit to give away catches!
But in modern day cricket, many batsmen would say they would easily hit bob willis fast bowling square of the wicket!
Anyway bob willis persona reminds me of the famous fictional movie- 'Lord of the Rings- fellowship of the urn!'
 
#151 · (Edited)
I was reading the biography of english fast bowler harold larwood. He was said to be of height 5'7''. But was the fastest bowler of his time. Watching Bob willis bowling on tv reminds me of what harold larwood must have been in old black and white cricket days. Cause the cricket scenario is just the same as of the past. Harold larwood i had seen a teleserial called 'bodyline' was captained by douglas jardine of england team. Harold larwood used to work in a coal mine. Poorest of england cricketeers in those days. And in his lunch time used to put up a stump for bowling practise. He then used to place a england coin over the stump and used to bowl such that the ball used to hit just the coin!!!
This might be a code perhaps that harold larwood used to place a coin on the pitch at good length and had a powerful eyesight arm co-ordination that he used to pitch the ball exactly on the coin. I read in his biography that he was a terror in bowling. Many batsmen used to get stomach cramps when their turn used to come to bat. And when they came out, their earlier batsman used to return to the pavillion on a field stretcher!!!(retired hurt). Bowling action of harold larwood seems slow, run up short, arm action quick. So i think his bowling is ordinary but the end resultant is extraordinaire!!! His bowling record is impressive...in 21 tests he took 73 wickets. And in first class cricket of his 1400 wickets 750 were clean bowlds. This earned him his cap and a sweater.
This feat reminds me of wasim akram and michael holding how they used to torment many a sides.
But as showcased in the teleserial, harold larwood was a very white looking guy. He used to bowl around the wicket short pitched to australian batsmen. The slips were placed ontowards the leg side.
In modern day bodyline is still played by some fast bowlers like javagal srinath, fanie de villiers and allan donald. A classic example of negating bodyline bowling was shown by michael atherton when allan donald used to bowl around the wicket. Michael atherton used to work the ball towards the mid-wicket.
 
#152 · (Edited)
I was watcing a yester year match between england vs india test 1974 highlights.

1st Test: England v India at Manchester, Jun 6-11, 1974 | Cricket Scorecard | ESPN Cricinfo

The england bowling side had fast bowlers. Of them chris old had an incredible bowling action, also bowling action of michael hendricks is cool. They bowled tandem with bob willis. While other bowlers were derek underwood, who bowled fast slow left arm offspin. And i even checked in their bowling records they are great. Also bowling was tony greig. So this bowling english team of 1974 was a formidable side.
Fast swing seam and short bowling.
Funny that no indian batsmen of 1974 never used to wear a helmet(headgear), neither forearm guard, neither chestguard and nor a thigh guard. Some used to wear a thigh guard, old fashioned gloves and only legpads! So they used to hook and pull over short balls. Even the stumps seem long and heavy. The popping crease also seems wide.
 
#154 · (Edited)
What if the bowling of harold larwood was never filmed in his playing days. And the bodyline test series scenes were edited cleverly by other test match scenes. Harold larwood run-up was said to have been 17 meters. The pitch is 20 meters. In the bodyline teleserial it was infact shown that harold larwood used to start his run-up from the boundary!! So when watching fast bowling of bob willis his run-up is 18 strides that is about i think 40 meters which is started somewhere at the logo. Then that makes 70 meters radius ground from the pitch. So was harold larwood's run-up 70 meters?
I think waqar younis might had been a big fan of bob willis fast bowling. So waqar younis run-up and speed seems like bob willis. The bowling action might be different but the technique resultant is very similar. Perhaps bob willis might had first started 'reverse swing' concept.
England's grounds are then 140 meter in diameter.
Some days ago i was watching australia vs sri lanka test match. The commentators said the shot striked from the pitch to the boundary distance was 95 meters in radius!!! So are australian cricket grounds 190 meters big grounds in diameter! So i am just in imaginations how could a batsman hit a four or a six to 95 meters off a fast bowler?
 
#155 · (Edited)
World's Fastest Bowler Competition - 1979 - YouTube

This video features the fast bowling competition of 1979 media! In this video, the fast bowlers when seen in close up slow mo cameras look very funny! As from one cannot see but infact fast bowlers are hyper-flexed! Their bowling action at the crease are not just common athletics as most of the modern bowlers nowdays are seen, but the knees and arms go wayward flex sway! Anyone would say its weird!
 
#156 · (Edited)
Dale styne is much like allan donald! But allan donald was better in athletic ability! Why doesn't dale styne tries for swinging the ball? I have never seen outswing and neither inswing from him! He bowls just quick swirling yorkers and short bowling as he is of short height snappy action! Allan donald was quicker than dale styne but bowled all swings perfectly!

Instead of dale styne there is another impressive short height fast bowler who is shuan tait...
http://youtu.be/bRQ-S4LFGzg

But when dale styne and shuan tait bowl on indian pitches their run-up and bowling speed seems very slow! I imagine batting against them i could easily hit straight drives against them and pull shot a six!
 
#157 · (Edited)
As i had earlier said that nowdays many batsmen likes of sachin tendulkar, adam gilchrist and sanath jayasurya try to employ lawn tennis shots in cricket.
So what if nowdays the fast bowlers too don't bowl seam, swing fast bowling. Instead they treat the cricket pitch like a baseball base, and just as a pitcher pitches the ball, the present day fast bowlers too visualize it in their mind and bowl just like it. Imagine the bowling crease in cricket moved two paces to the left and from their the fast bowler bowls just like a baseball pitch!
So mostly the deliveries then are just up short or angled in just short of yorker lengths! Which dismisses most of the batsmen. The fast bowlers that you have mentioned bret lee, shoiab akhtar, shuan tait, dale steyn...are all best baseball pitchers!

http://youtu.be/e_EwGvxMrr4
 
#158 · (Edited)
Instead check out fast bowling of geoff lawson...

Geoff Lawson vs Graham Gooch, Tim Robinson, David Gower - YouTube

I think some deliveries are really quick!

I was watching a old match india vs pakistan of 1995 perhaps. In it javagal srinath was bowling at speed seemed much faster than even waqar younis. But wherever he bowled line length all batsmen played angled it to fours! So i think a seamer fast bowler who doesn't bowls like a baseball pitcher there are hard times, one can see even the bowling of geoff lawson! Also the fast bowler perhaps doesn't need to bowl at his fastest but to achieve such a speed line length such that to unsettle the batsman!
 
#159 · (Edited)
I had seen shoiab akhtar debut days of his cricket when he was bowling like baseball pitcher chucker! So when the allegations came shoaib akhtar after three years had corrected his bowling action! And in some tests against australia in australia he bowled with correct arm movement!
But what about brett lee?

http://youtu.be/SyqmbyArlQo

http://youtu.be/h7ceq4tjWPk

His face reminds me of douglas jardine and from his debut still no umpire has no balled brett lee!!!
His best bowled wickets one can point out very easily that all of his bowling is throw balls chuckers!
Brett lee says that he has elbow supine flexion of his bowling arm but in the slow motion video one can easily make out that bowling is a deliberate throw! In the slow motion video as brett lee comes towards the crease his bowling arm ceases motion when he brings it to waist while hopping at the crease! So the normal fast bowlers like dennise lillee, javagal srinath, waqar younis have normal clockwise arm movement gaining momentum when releasing the ball. But brett lee as his action progresses he slowly puts his bowling arm from waist to the top over his head with left leg forward! Then by a trick of taking the ball weight behind his two fingers holding the ball he just throws the ball towards the stumps quick! Like a baseball pitcher unsettles the batsmen! The shoulder back movement is just gives minute momentum but the acceleration comes with the two finger throw ball perfection! So a jerk when his bowling arm is over head is seen at every time of his dismissal! All bowlers arm movement is 210 degrees on a 360 degree angular rotation basis! Even slingshot bowlers like jeff thompson bowled momentum gaining from 180 degree till release! But brett lee's bowling arm has only 30 degree of movement whereby gaining momentum which is a throw against bowling rules!


screenshot windows


screenshot software
So there were some chucker bowlers who bowled chuck even donald bradman times bodyline. Some in modern cricket too, but brett lee was best of all chuckers!
 
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