C_C
International Captain
I think i faced one dude in the whole time who was 90mph or close. But often times we played cricket with 20-25 year olds and the pitch-length used to vary. Sometimes i could've sworn that the pitch was 3-4 feet short...coz all of a sudden someone 'decently fast' (my perception) would be whizzing around line nuts and i'd have to switch to pure 'instinct mode'.adharcric said:Who were these 90+ mph guys? I would've thought there aren't too many in the world that can do that considering we have less than 10 in international cricket who can pull it off.
I am pretty sure that even if some of those guys wern't 90mph, me and most people who played cricket along with us had several instances where reaction-times required would be similar. And many of us got hurt as well- which is why we didnt always use cricket balls.
And by the way, it is not uncommon to find 90mph bowlers at club level. Most who play there play on a casual and 'fun basis' and some are there to bowl for sheer speed, some fling, etc etc. And i am sure you realise that given that club batsmen arnt that proficient, a lot of the time bowling blindingly fast (if you can) would be better than trying to be accurate- so long as you dont bowl a wide, you can get away with some fairly mediocre fast bowling simply because it intimidates many.
I know many times i bowled, i'd have more success just hurling the ball at top speed than trying to cultivate line-n-length. It was a bit of a trade-off : Line and length troubles the occasional decent batsmen at club level but most average club batsmen can play it decently. Bowling as fast as you can (provided you do go into atleast fast-medium zone) usually troubles the decent batsmen less but absolutely flummoxes most average club batsmen.
Its a different game there really and all i can visualise from in these hypothetical scenarios is based on my experiences.
Typically, for me, fast men were less troublesome- i used to play tennis seriously in my teens and was used to 'much faster reaction time and instinctive play' mode- i'd switch to that and whack the fast ones around. Doesnt mean that i didnt cop a few bruises along the way either. But in general i preferred facing them than line and length sticklers- they made me think that extra second and i dont do so hot in sports when i have to think on the go. Which is why i either do well on turn-based sports (like chess) or fast-paced ones like most racquet sports and i suck in team sports like soccer or football.