Steyn/Philander vs Donald/Pollock

[Bolo.]

don't care for the classification. pollock wasn't outright fast bowler.

You have exacting standards. If you can get up to 150ish you are bowling fast.

 

[subshakerz]

You have exacting standards. If you can get up to 150ish you are bowling fast.

145 is 90MPH and is fast.

 

[Coronis]

don't care for the classification. pollock wasn't outright fast bowler.

And yet you are quibbling over his classification.

When you think of a fast bowler, you tend to think of aggressive and attacking bowlers and not bowlers who bowls less than 80mph.

I accept that as long as you get wickets it should not matter much but pure pace excites majority of fans.

Exciting does not always equal effective. And effective does not always equal exciting. Idgaf about excitement when it comes to rating players. Of course, its a nice bonus but it matters 0.

 

[Prince EWS]

From what I remember

McGrath bowled mostly in 130s

Pollock bowled in 130s but was touching even high 120s times at the end of his career

Yeah Pollock was really slow at the end, but he was also **** at the end. His peak was right at the start of his career when he was a properly fast bowler - not express, but around early Cummins pace. The slower he got with time the less effective he got.

 

[reyrey]

A few things I remember reading or hearing.

Pollock was Rapid early on.

McGrath was always pretty slow on the speed gun at around 130kmh. But batsman were always surprised by the speeds he clocked as he always felt a lot quicker.

He was a"heavy" ball bowler (they tend to get a lot of extra bounce through muscular bowling actions) and those types of bowlers are said to feel quicker than their speed gun readings. Heavy ball bowlers tend to obviously be taller, but some bowlers like Kallis at 6ft were heavy ball bowlers too.

There are some heavy ball bowlers who could also bowl at 145kmh plus and those guys are the types of bowlers who batsman genuinely hate to face. Some examples are Morkel, Flintoff and Devon Malcolm. At his peak Ian Bishop was a god tier heavy ball bowler.

 

[shortpitched713]

How quick does a bowler need to be to be classified as fast in your opinion? Nobody is calling him express.

Top out at at least 145 I'd say.

 

[shortpitched713]

Yeah Pollock was really slow at the end, but he was also **** at the end. His peak was right at the start of his career when he was a properly fast bowler - not express, but around early Cummins pace. The slower he got with time the less effective he got.

He was pretty darn good regardless of pace for the first 2/3 - 3/4 of his career.

It's only the bottom falling out at the very end which keeps him out of a very, very elite set, for mine.