There is over a six-line racerunner gap between the quickest balls bowled by men and women. A what, exactly? a tiny, striped lizard with a peak speed of 28.97 kilometres per hour that is widespread throughout the southern US and Mexico.
In a WPL match in Delhi on Tuesday, Shabnim Ismail delivered a delivery to Meg Lanning that registered a speed of 132.1 km/h on the broadcasters’ speed gun, making it the fastest ball bowled by a woman since pace has been monitored. However, it was far from the fastest delivery in cricket history, which was a 161.3 km/h rocket hit to Nick Knight by Shoaib Akhtar during a 2003 World Cup match at Newlands.
Ismail’s record ball is therefore 29.2 km/h slower than Shoaib’s. or 0.23 km/h slower than the fastest recorded speed of the six-line racer. Did that imply that Ismail’s effort was less than stellar?
Brett Schultz told Cricbuzz, “It’s a fantastic achievement because she’s done something no one else has in her sphere of the sport.” Subsequently, he vehemently ridiculed such juxtapositional nonsense, saying, “It’s like when people attempt to compare athletes from different periods. The greats are the greats, but the greats of various times cannot be compared.
“People think bowlers used to be faster, but it was a different game. Simply observe the bats: the faster the ball arrives, the faster it travels. I used to dash in and attempt to bowl as quickly as possible. They now bowl around seventeen different deliveries.
“Purists, who are outdated and antiquated, will perceive it differently. That being said, the game is outdated. A lot more people watch cricket these days since it is no longer a game for purists. Thus, you must search for analogies. You’re not making the appropriate comparisons if you compare the quickest deliveries made by male and female bowlers.”
On another scale, true fast bowlers—regardless of their age, size, or gender—are difficult to understand. In his playing days, Schultz weighed around 100 kg, stood 1.89 metres tall, and had lustrous hair that escaped from behind an untamed mop of blonde hair. With her right arm, Ismail, who stands 1.65 metres and weighs 60 kilogrammes, charges in, her dark hair swaying behind her. Schultz is an alligator in a swamp if Ismail is a six-lined racer.
The batters confronting them have the crucial common component in their view. Ismail gives them the impression that they have an urgent desire to be somewhere other than at the crease, much like they had when Schultz bowled. Finding the similarities between bowlers like Schultz and Ismail in cricket, if nothing else, is more important than directly comparing them.
Taking 37 wickets at 20.24 in nine Test matches between November 1992 and October 1997, Schultz was a player. During South Africa’s first series in Sri Lanka in August and September 1993, he was especially deadly, claiming 20 wickets at 16.30 in three matches. What may have been as successful a career as Ismail’s was hampered by injuries. She holds the record for most wickets taken by South Africa in both white-ball forms. She is fifth in T20Is and second only to Jhulan Goswami overall in ODIs.
How fast did Schultz move? While I don’t recall seeing speed guns when I played, I’ve heard that I bowled at 156 [km/h] or whatever. That’s not something I can say for sure. All I can tell is that it really messed up my body, no matter how fast I bowled. I’ve had stiff shoulders and knee replacements.”
Did he not question if he would cause himself any harm? “Not at all. That was the whole idea; it wasn’t brakes Bezuidenhout, it was just Schultz. Even in the nets, I operated with that mindset. It seemed like a match, you and I, in the nets. It’s the reason I didn’t last. Along with weighing between 98 and 102 kg, he also had a large catapult leap when bowling. And being bowled out for 37 overs in an innings by a skipper like Kepler [Wessels] [really 36.5 in the heat and humidity of Colombo]. Still, I have pleasant recollections.”
Like Schultz, Ismail is a verbal punch-bag when it comes to her own bowling, so she’ll walk away from the game with lots of fond memories. Some opponents’ eyes will be filled with anxiety because the possibility of an excessive tempo is just as frightening—if not more so—than the pace itself.
Undoubtedly, Knight appeared uneasy as Shoaib lunged towards him, clutching the record wrecking ball on that day in Cape Town over twenty-one years ago. However, the left-hander handled a delivery that pitched on a leg stump on a length that probed with skill. Had Knight not risen to his toes to knock the ball off his hip and towards square leg, it would have cleared middle stump. Playing on the Essex ovals of his childhood, he performed the stroke as easily as he could have against a ball bowled by a Sunday afternoon trundler.
Ismail’s performance for Lanning evoked the same type of magnetic appeal that the captivating package the South African entertainer delivers everyone who sees her act has come to represent. The ball appeared to be heading leg wide of the stumps as it was easily beat the Australian who was flicking. Still, Ismail whirled, arched her arms into a menacing V, and growled.
For that is what fast bowlers, whether they go by the name Schultz, Shabnim, or Shoaib, do. Because, yaar, pace is pace, as Shoaib himself is reported to have stated. The comet is easy to spot; we don’t need a speed gun to inform us when it’s here. We don’t need to blink—we just need eyes.
