Cricket Forum banner

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)!
 
#2 · (Edited)
Perfect fastest bowlers in cricket history are very few, allan donald(SA), michael holding(west indies) and chris old(england). These bowlers never tried swinging the ball, neither cutters. They had athletic ability and were tall. They bowled consistently quick with a nagging offstump line-length. Many batsmen would edge to the slips or would see their off-stump flying wayback. Indian sunil gavaskars footwork batting against chris old shear speed in test matches is worth watching. (funny thing in cricket that a single batsman plays a whole innings).
 
#3 ·
The best fast bowling eleven are:

- Glenn McGrath (Australia)
- Richard Hadlee (New Zealand)
- Wasim Akram (Pakistan)
- Waqar Younis (Pakistan)
- Curtly Ambrose (West Indies)
- Imran Khan (Pakistan)
- Malcolm Marshall (West Indies)
- Dennis Lillee (Australia)
- Allan Donald (South Africa)
- Joel Garner (West Indies)
- Fred Trueman (England)

Fred Trueman set the fast-bowling standard back in the 50s an 60s. He was the first fast bowler to break the 300 test-wicket mark. Even decades after he graced the field, cricket pundits mention his name as one of the greatest of all time.
 
#4 · (Edited)
hmmm

Fred trueman run-up is short and bowling action is front-on slingshot. Fitness and enthusiasm of fred trueman is way too high. More than 2000 first-class wickets(no one days). In modern day, bowlers won't even take 450 wickets in first-class matches. The rotation of the bowling arm seems way too quick even of harold larwood. Instead richard hadlee's bowling is very amusing. I think richard hadlee is shelved in cricket. I haven't seen not even a single match of richard hadlee on tv! I mean even joel garner matches are shown on tv sometimes and even of waqar younis, malcolm marshal, devon malcolm, denise lillee...etc. But richard hadlee big career is hardly mentioned. It seems was a time when new zealand cricket of 1970s lacked even medium pacers. Most seamers were like clooney circus and fragle rock hairdo. Richard hadlee then perhaps played kerry packers new zealand team in cool light brown black trousers. I tried to study richard hadlee bowling action in youtube and still can't figure it out. Very simple run-up and a complex side-on bowling action. Wicket to wicket impact bowling. Many batsmen as i had seen in youtube became confused playing blinders against quick speed of richard hadlee. Even australian bret lee nor the present day new zealand bowlers can bowl such bowling. Funny that bowling skills differ from player to player in cricket and not just bowling quick like west indies. I think in 1994 many indian newcomers had trained in new zealand fast bowling schools and denise lillee pace academy. Indian bowlers wanted to make impact in modern cricket, but did not succeded. Though the modern new zealanders were improvised bowlers like d.morrison, d.nash, s.doull, s.o'connor! Chris cairns medium fast bowling action is similar like richard hadlee but line-length not exactly.
 
#7 · (Edited)
As i had once measured the 22 yard pitch with a measuring tape and i found it very very long, hard to bowl with a heavy season ball. The distance with which i play cricket is from the bowling crease 22 walkable steps to the batsman stumps. In coaching clubs its 25-28. But then bowling in nets would be useless ineffective straight bowling. People say that the season bowlers have 6 ft to 6 ft 5inch heights with high arm reach to play the 22yard pitch. But then on tv i feel very amusing as when the fast bowlers are bowling the pitch seems long, whereas when spinners are bowling the pitch(becomes short) seems just 18 walkable steps! Spinners would infact find it difficult to bowl on a 22yard pitch. The batsmen too take ease while running between wickets just a casual jog! So cricket is a mystery if its played correctly or not, maybe just a funny entertainment camerawork! Lets say if the pitch were short, then i think guts of batsmen are very high. Like n.sidhu playing ata-ur-rehman fast bowling. Another fast bowler paul jarvis bowled n.sidhu very funny. Another great bloopers was courtney walsh's slow loop beamers to ian healy in tests. From the side camera the pitch does look short.
 
#12 · (Edited)
Other great calypso fast bowlers were curtly ambrose, kenny benjamin, darren gough, jason gillespie, danny morrison, ian bishop, meric pringle, glenn mcgrath, paul reiffel, brendon julian! While non-calypso were alan mulally, shane bond, bret lee, craig mcdermott, a.caddick, michael kasprowicz and abdur razak.
 
#13 ·
I was viewing a classic odi match of 1992 WC between charlie chaplin botham england Vs keplers' SA. In that match the most notable thing is allan donald's fast bowling. Very short run-up, explosive action and the wicket keeper is way too back. The light ball ricochets after hitting the bat. The athletism is also cool and the other SA fast bowlers arm strength seems high. Whereas the english batsmen typical classic batting is cool(but never try to exploit). The pitch seems very long.
 
#15 · (Edited)
I was watching the 1992 WC final, and i think the man of the match should have been won by aquib javed. Aquib javed is a cool cricketeer fast bowler who bowled superb spell to win the final match. But the award went to wasim akram who at that time was bowling high speeds. Aquib javed was a major team player for pakistan and without him the team always lacked enthusiasm. There was not even waqar younis in the world cup win run, though he was in the team squad. But i don't understand at what age do pakistan cricketeers debut? Like waqar younis at that time looked thirty year old in 1992 even aquib javed. But their official age was sixteen in 1988. Even ata-ur-rehman was there. I also think that umar gul was also in the world cup run who then debuted after a decade with age twenty!
 
#17 · (Edited)
Young cricket aspirant should note that fast bowlers like mervyn pringle, paul jarvis, ata ur rehman etc never were able to take even fifty test wickets. Perhaps of the long pitch imagining a huge fast bowler(like denis lillee) bowling would seem bowling short pitches with occassional flying yorker(played for four legside). Medium bowlers then perhaps try for luck by bowling loop short pitch bowling and variations. So thats why cricket is much more favourable for batsmen. Another baffling thing about cricket ball is that though bowled by spinners and edged light stroked, the ball magically races towards the boundary.
 
#18 · (Edited)
Since modern day batsmen are like cyborgs with very little margin for error and as long pitch being favourable for batsmen, many fast bowlers started bowling chuck. Like m.prabhakar, aquib javed, shoiab akhtar, bret lee, henry olanga, fidel edwards, shabir ahmed, l.malinga, shabir ahmed and spinners m.muralitharan, grant flower. Chucking bowling is infact useless in cricket, but perhaps for leisure to get a luck nick edge caught behind and surprising the batsman with york bowled. I sometimes thought that even javagal srinath used to bowl chuck!
 
#19 · (Edited)
So in conclusion, best fast bowling(1985 to 1994). The bowlers were so tricky that half of their overs they used to spend in beating the batsmen with swing/seam and tricks! Also i think that most of the bowlers are infact trained( how to appeal, calmness, etc.) to become a gentleman first, even if they are just acting. Then some of them get credit in playing in english county!
 
#21 ·
I was viewing once a sri lanka ODI match and sri lankans are low height players running between wickets the sri lankan batsman took just eight steps to reach the opposite wicket even wearing all the lightweight gear! When i counted the same eight steps jog in the field where i play the pitch seem just 18 to 20 walkable steps. Rather than 22 steps and 24 steps in coaching clubs. The real cricket pitch the 22 yards is something like 28 to 30 walkable steps long!!!
 
#22 · (Edited)
I like the bowling of umer gul's run-up. Its of finest athletism perhaps trained by waqar younis. Pakistan new generation fast bowlers from 1997 use hopping bowling run-up. When i was bowling in coaching club i had bought cricket bowling shoes full spikes. But after using them for six months, in the beginning it seemed cool grip and quick run-up, but then my ankles, calves became sore and sometimes i used to just slow down from my run-up when i reached the wicket. This weird athletic muscle degeneration is seen in many fast bowlers like lance klusenor, allan donald, azhar mehmud etc. But pakistan bowlers bowl year after year in sun. I think waqar younis fitness level is 20 times more than shoib akhtar. So how to improve run-up fitness? and bowl like umer gul (rated second best after curtly ambrose). I think its not a fitness drawback, but perhaps some psychological jitters created by the opposition making a drawback!
 
#23 · (Edited)
Dailymotion - Pakpassion.net : New Zealand Vs Pakistan ODI - 13th Mar 1993 - a Sports & Extreme video
Here in this exciting cricket fast bowling video of pakistan, one can see the fitness, speed of waqar younis prime days! Pakistan always try to upgrade their fast bowling techniques decade after decade. So in this video there is ata-ur-rehman fast bowling. Ata-ur-rehman has very high fitness and agility but after completing his whippy action, the ball sometimes after release slows down to the wicket and ends up played to the boundary. The follow through of ata-ur-rehman is very similar to shoib akhtar who perhaps wanted to improvise the bowling of ata-ur-rehman where he left! So the funny aspect is their bowling arm over-extention perhaps gained through high level of fitness. So i remember viewing those funny test matches of shoib akhtar Vs australia in 1998 when after a big run-up the bowling arm used to move very slowly!
Another fine thing in this cricket video is wasim akram. I think wasim akram has changed his bowling action several times in his career. In the debut he bowled a skiddy medium pacer, then in the 1992 World Cup he bowled with a long run-up zippy action!, then in this video he bowls like a left-handed imran khanum nice action!, then in sharjah 1995 he bowls with short run-up medium but still there were fine performances in 1998 against sri lanka in tests!
Aren't there any khan names in pakistan cricket line-up?
 
#25 ·
I was watching the famous spat between waqar younis and ajay jadeja jain of 1996 world cup match! I think waqar younis run-up was ok, but due to air resitance the ball used to slow down and was very easy to hit. From the camera view waqar younis looks very fast but bowling is slow only occasional fast yorkers!
Even the venkatesh prasad bowled of ammir sohail is infact a slow ball which baffled the batsman!
 
#26 · (Edited)
To see if a fast bowler is really genuine or not? The perfect fast bowler whatever the height may be, is one who looks unbelievable from the side. The perfect run-up, then the bowling action and the rotation of the bowling arm. The fast bowler has a kind of intensity while bowling like for example ian bishop of west indies. From the side it would seem like he is jogging to the wicket. But the ball released after completing the action is seen with power hitting the base of the stumps!
 
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Top