Will Tait break Akhtars world record?

[mohammad16]

Akhtar is on record the fastest bowler ever to have played international cricket, lee was a tad bit slower and Mohammad Zahid is someone almost all international Pakistanis consider to be easily quicker than Akhtar himself. Regardless of all that, Shoaib bowled the fastest delivery ever recorded in an international match and thus can lay claim to being the fastest bowler ever to this date.

Tait wants it for himself though and hes only just 26, its quite scary how his carefree light jog approach to the crease generates so much pace. I suppose its a lot of wrist work there.


Shaun Tait unleashes record thunderbolt in T20 win

MICHAEL Clarke declared the "Wild Thing" is back after Shaun Tait bowled the fastest delivery ever recorded in Australia during a devastating spell which snatched Australia a Twenty20 victory over Pakistan in Melbourne last night.

The biggest roar of the night from the largest crowd of the summer, 60,045, came when a primed Tait clocked 160.7km/h with the third ball of Pakistan's innings on the way to finishing with 3-13 from his four overs.

Defending a meagre 127 after a dreadful batting performance, Australia restricted Pakistan to 9-125 from its 20 overs to win by two runs.

Under new Twenty20 captain Clarke, Australia completed a clean sweep of Pakistan this summer, having won all three Tests and all five one-day matches.

Two late wickets from 20-year-old debutant Steven Smith (2-34) compounded Pakistan's misery as Clarke bravely continued to attack. He kept a slip in for the young leg-spinner and twice put in three slips during Tait's blistering opening two overs.

Start of sidebar. Skip to end of sidebar.

End of sidebar. Return to start of sidebar.

It is not the first time in his career Tait has clocked the magical 100mph on the old scale but sadly the body of this super-talented 26-year-old has been so decimated by injury he now only plays the short forms of the game for South Australia.

"He's got more in him," Clarke joked after the match.

Tait is now chasing Shoaib Akhtar's world record of 161.3, recorded during the 2003 World Cup.

"It's amazing how fast Shoaib bowled," Tait said later. "I almost killed myself out there tonight. It (the record) is not something I think about all the time.

"There are only certain moments in your career when you've got a chance to do it. You've probably got two balls in a game. I did it with my third ball and had a crack with my next ball but it's hard to get back up to that pace."

Tait said he was able to bowl so quickly because he was fresh.

"Looking back, the decision I've made at this stage only to play the short forms of the game has been a pretty solid one," he said. "I'm really enjoying the shorter forms and tonight was just good fun."

Pace is pace and is always fun to watch, I feel there was no better sight than a pumped up akhtar literally sprinting to the crease with that amazing slingy action and those amazing celebrations. Miss those days.

[Richard]

Originally Posted by mohammad16

Akhtar is on record the fastest bowler ever to have played international cricket

No, he's merely the fastest to have bowled since records begun. Big difference.

[mohammad16]

Originally Posted by Richard

No, he's merely the fastest to have bowled since records begun. Big difference.

Duh genius, world record is a world record....

[Richard]

Indeed it is - but records need to be recognised for what they are, not extrapolated to what they aren't.

[mohammad16]

Originally Posted by Richard

Indeed it is - but records need to be recognised for what they are, not extrapolated to what they aren't.

I dont disagree with that but wth.. Its a race, it gets people excited, Akhtars the fastest recorded in an international match, why do you think even Tait is refering to that record delivery? It holds some weight, thats all I was saying anyways so I dont know what you are on about.

[irfan]

Originally Posted by mohammad16

I dont disagree with that but wth.. Its a race, it gets people excited, Akhtars the fastest recorded in an international match, why do you think even Tait is refering to that record delivery? It holds some weight, thats all I was saying anyways so I dont know what you are on about.

No point arguing with him and FTR I reckon Tait's going to beat Shoaib's record - he looked like he was bowling at 90-95% yesterday still reckon he's got a smidgen left in the tank

[Streetwise]

Originally Posted by Richard

No, he's merely the fastest to have bowled since records begun. Big difference.

How can you not understand what what written.

[SilentOne]

Massively inflated speed gun readings tbh, no ****ing way was Tait 160km/h

[mohammad16]

Do the conditions play a role? That was an extremely unusually quick pitch at the MCG, Umar Gul and Rana were both clocking speeds quite a bit higher than their usual speeds.

[aussie]

I think he goes bowls in South Africa he will break it.

[archie mac]

I remember there was some talk at the time about the "Elvis" record, as being hype for the series?

[Flem274*]

Originally Posted by Richard

No, he's merely the fastest to have bowled since records begun. Big difference.

Modern bowlers SUCK. Old bowlers are BEST in every way possible!

Seriously, sooo nitpicky. He's the fastest bowler ever recorded, recordings are tangible proof, making it a world record.

[thierry henry]

Originally Posted by mohammad16

Do the conditions play a role? That was an extremely unusually quick pitch at the MCG, Umar Gul and Rana were both clocking speeds quite a bit higher than their usual speeds.

Yes. But not pitch conditions. Atmospheric conditions.

And different radars/dodgy radars/slight differences in how the radars are set-up etc etc IMO

[Richard]

Originally Posted by Flem274*

Modern bowlers SUCK. Old bowlers are BEST in every way possible!

Nowhere was there the remotest of suggestion of that.

Seriously, sooo nitpicky. He's the fastest bowler ever recorded, recordings are tangible proof, making it a world record.

It's a rather unimportant record though, for so many reasons. Not, incidentally, that it's of zero interest, but the combination of lack of absolute certainty over things like the accuracy of speedguns (in theory they measure to 0.1mph; some won't even believe that they're accurate to much more than 5mph), the fact that there've been all sorts of different measures of speed down the years (some reliable, some not, but all different) that people mistakenly compare to each other, the fact that speed of delivery isn't really tremendously important, and the fact that uniform speedguns are only a very recent development.

FTR I've believed for a fair while that Tait had it in him to bowl faster deliveries than anyone since serious timing of bowlers begun in 1998. Has always had that knack of bowling super-fast (say, 96-97 mph) while still appearing to have a bit in the tank, as our friend irfan pointed-out.

[Richard]

Originally Posted by mohammad16

Do the conditions play a role? That was an extremely unusually quick pitch at the MCG, Umar Gul and Rana were both clocking speeds quite a bit higher than their usual speeds.

The speed of the pitch makes no difference, because deliveries are timed out of the hand. There may have been atmospherics that made deliveries a bit quicker than usual, or there may just have been several very pumped-up bowlers who bowled a bit quicker than usual (possibly the facet of mutual inspiration was involved).