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The fastest bowler you have ever faced?

Manee

Cricketer Of The Year
Yeah, people tend to exaggerate pace
I have not faced him but one person at our club really put international pace into perspective. He was said to be timed at 88mph once, he averaged 9 with the ball for my lowly 3rd division club and has played for Sri Lanka A. The keeper would stand a good 50 yards back and still come back with blisters all over the hands.
 

short shorts

School Boy/Girl Captain
I have faced an 80 mph bowler before. He could only maintain that speed for an over or so, and luckily for me couldn't control it very well and bowled everyone of those outside off. I managed to cut two and missed the rest.
 

Raghav

International Vice-Captain
I have faced an 80 mph bowler before. He could only maintain that speed for an over or so, and luckily for me couldn't control it very well and bowled everyone of those outside off. I managed to cut two and missed the rest.
never caught in the slips? :blink:
 

SJS

Hall of Fame Member
Sanjeev Sharma who played 2 tests and 23 odi's for India. He was pretty nippy.

There was Jaspal Singh, younger brother of Gursharan who was considered a real star and a great prospect for India but fizzled out playing just one test. Jaspalwas really quick and if there was as much attention paid to pacers then as is done today we would have had a reall quick bowler.

Yograj Singh, Yuvraj's father, was pretty quick too.

But the fastest deliveries I faced were ll from a left arm bowler who came in and chucked from a short run up. Suresh Luthra,when he let them rip with no worry about the umpires (who in Delhi and virtually the entire North zone dared not call him) was difficult to spot. You really couldnt see the ball and he swung them at that speed and also hit you all over your body with short stuff.

I have never seen him mastered by any one including by top India players like Gundappa Vishwanath. The only time I saw him played with aplomb was by a club player from Delhi, Prithviraj Theogaraj who scored 90 odd and an unbeaten 80 odd in a tournament final where we were bowled out for under 200 in each innings with Bishen Bedi and Suresh Luthra making life miserable. Prithvi, who opened the innings, batted as if he was playing schoolboys. It was easily the best batting I have ever seen outside an international contest.

Prithvi, who was an absolutely brilliant but accentric batsman, suffered from schizophrenia. He went from bad to worse playing odd games here and there showing his brilliance while irritating the teams who dares to include him in the side by doing crazy things like peeing while fielding at mid on while the bowler was running in to bowl, walked out of his house one day never to be seen again.
 

adharcric

International Coach
SJS said:
Prithvi, who was an absolutely brilliant but accentric batsman, suffered from schizophrenia. He went from bad to worse playing odd games here and there showing his brilliance while irritating the teams who dares to include him in the side by doing crazy things like peeing while fielding at mid on while the bowler was running in to bowl, walked out of his house one day never to be seen again.
:-O
 

SJS

Hall of Fame Member
Yes its true, all of it. It was very sad.

Strap pads onto the guy and give him a bat, any old bat would do, and the guy would produce incandescent cricket. Take him off the field and he would talk like a madman. He slowly went from bad to worse.

He was selected for the Delhi Ranji squad and at the nets at Feroze Shah Kotla, Ram Babu Gupta, who was the manager of the Delhi team (and of the Delhi University team where Prithvi was a star) and an umpire of those days asked him to fetch him a box of new balls from the pavillion. Prithvi turned around and told Ram Babu, ' If you think that you will include me in your Ranji team and in turn I will run your errands like a servant, you have another think coming". That was the last time anyone considered him for the Delhi side.

I asked him later why he did this since everyone in Delhi cricket was talking about it. He was adament that Ram Babu wanted to humiliate him since he had slaughtered the team Ram Babu was associated with and had refused an offer to play for them. So Gupta was trying to show Prithvi who was the boss.

He used to just imagine such insults aimed at him by one and all.

He was also an extremely well read guy and could quote extensively from English literature. He wrote beautifully and had hand writing as if it was printed. It was like calligraphy. He could also bowl medium paced outswingers and in-cutters.

Tall and athletic he was a natural.

My one regret in life is meeting Prithvi when I was still young and did not understand what was happening very well. Psychiatrists were not a common thing in the Delhi of the 1970's. Lunatic asylums were. I am sure treated early, Prithvi had a great chance in life but no one tried to give him that chance and he slowly slipped into the abyss.
 

SJS

Hall of Fame Member
Oh yes and there was this bowler called Randhir Singh who later moved to Bihar and also played a couple of ODI's for India. He was pretty nippy as a youngster.
 

Salamuddin

International Debutant
Faced Laxmi Balaji in the nets at the IIT ground in Chennai.

He was comfortably the quickest guy I've faced even though he was only medium fast by international standards.

He did make me jump around a little bit but it wasn't scary or anything.
 

FRAZ

International Captain
Faced Laxmi Balaji in the nets at the IIT ground in Chennai.

He was comfortably the quickest guy I've faced even though he was only medium fast by international standards.

He did make me jump around a little bit but it wasn't scary or anything.
He was a good bowler though and had all that potential to be quicker .
 

western_warrior

Cricket Spectator
a few years ago i played my first club match in queensland i had just been upgraded from under 17's and a recently retired Paul Mcdermott was steaming in. i dont know how quick he was but i know out of the 9 balls i faced off him about 7 of them hit my body and pads. lol the bruises on my body the next week looked like i had gone ten rounds in a boxing ring. but i stil loved every minute of it.....!
 

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