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Best ever medium pacer?
- Thread starter Matt79
- Start date
Richard
Cricket Web Staff Member
TBH, I think the h post will mean this thread might end-up the most dug in history, both for mundane and sensible reasons.
BTW - did I ever say this? All due respect to Matt of '79, I don't think there's any point in trying to decide who was the best bowler who bowled at a certain speed (particularly given that for the vast majority of cricket's history we could only guess at what speeds bowlers were bowling at). And we see that by the "no way was so-and-so a medium-pacer". Bowlers' speeds vary, both over a career and ball-to-ball.
TBH, anyway, virtually no medium-pace bowlers have ever been successful at Test-cricket, you need to be medium-fast at the very quickest. Even they've only had small numbers who can purvey it with success, and no-one really recent. Fast-medium is mostly a requistite.
JBMAC
State Captain
It was pretty simple
If a ball came through at a good clip and shaved you it was bloody fast
If a ball came through and you were able to score anything from 1-3 runs that was medium pace
If a ball came through and you hit a four or six then the bowler was a slow/spinner.
No Science involved just that[you Knew
If a ball came through at a good clip and shaved you it was bloody fast
If a ball came through and you were able to score anything from 1-3 runs that was medium pace
If a ball came through and you hit a four or six then the bowler was a slow/spinner.
No Science involved just that[you Knew
Nate
You'll Never Walk Alone
Word.
Pup Clarke
Cricketer Of The Year
Have seen both crank it up to 130kph on quite a few occasions. Can't classify that as medium pace.
neville cardus
International Debutant
How about Harry Boyle, the "Very Devil"?
neville cardus
International Debutant
I always enjoyed him. He had perhaps the greatest slower delivery in the modern game. How grossly underrated he was.
neville cardus
International Debutant
He was probably faster than that. He did himself no favours in the speed stakes by employing that steepling length which, as a hallmark of his bowling, was eclipsed only by the consistency with which he held it. Although greatly unsettling (chiefly for said metronomic steadiness), it completely duped the speed gun.
I do not know how closely you study, and how much credibility you give to, that delightful piece of technology creatively dubbed "Hawkeye", but it shows (with what may be called conclusiveness only if you believe in its fabled accuracy) that a cricket ball, when trundled, loses an enormous amount of pace after hitting the deck.
This always seemed the case with Glenn McGrath. Had a he bowled a foot or so fuller, he might not have been as great or as temperate a bowler, but he would have maintained his status as a genuine speedster for far longer than he did.
Still, whatever the facts about his speed and how much of it he lost after his deliveries introduced themselves to cricket wickets, he hardly deserves mention in a thread devoted to medium-pacers.
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neville cardus
International Debutant
That was only because it made Bedser, like Tate before him, feel more secure. He loved the immediate slap of the leather of the ball against the leather of the gloves. It fired him.
neville cardus
International Debutant
If you are going to claim fast-bowling honours for Tait, you really ought to do the same for Dale Steyn, Morne Morkel and Mitchell Johnson. The last-mentioned often eclipsed Tait's speed during the recent Test series with India.
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Pup Clarke
Cricketer Of The Year
Forgetting Mr Akthar one feels...
neville cardus
International Debutant
Annoyingly, in the case of Shoaib, I am forced for once to agree with the odious bond21. The Rawalpindi Express has been as inconsistent speed-wise of late as he has been inconsistent temperament-wise throughout his career.
Pup Clarke
Cricketer Of The Year
Still classifies as "Right Arm Fast" IMO, he was still bowling deliveries in the early 150s in the series v India.
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BhupinderSingh
Banned
Fazal Mahmood has to be one of the best if not the best ever medium pacer.
neville cardus
International Debutant
Orright, but that hardly refutes my contention that he is grossly inconsistent. He was often well down into the 130s in that same series.