Shoaib's pace reigns supreme

It was billed as the biggest individual show-down in world cricket today, cricket's answer to a heavy weight title fight to decide once and for all who is the fastest bowler on the planet.

But the three-match confrontation which was planned, effectively turned into a single day of competition between the world's two fastest bowlers.

Shoaib Akhtar came to Australia as the fastest bowler alive and left with his reputation intact. In fact, Shoaib left Australia with a new found respect from the Australian public and batsmen alike and, perhaps, fear as the deadliest one-day bowler in world cricket.

Brett Lee was effectively dropped for the first clash due to his poor economy rate since his return from elbow surgery some 12 months ago. Coming into the second game on notice to tighten things up, Lee understandably looked tense and never really got into gear. Lee's pace comes from rhythm and playing competitive cricket but the seven week lay-off had also let a little rust set in and this showed in all the Australian bowlers.

Glenn McGrath has not bowled as slowly since the beginning of the Test series against the West Indies in 2000. In this series his bowling was around 10kph slower than in the one-dayers in Australia earlier this year. Just four months ago, he was bowling whole overs above 140kph and as high as 143.7kph, yet from the start of this series, McGrath settled into the 128kph to 134kph range and barely got above 136kph.

Jason Gillespie's pace also suffered a little from his lack of cricket, as he was about 5kph below what he would usually be producing during an Australian summer. Gillespie, however, did manage to match Mohammed Sami for pace as the two men were constantly over 140kph and as high as 145kph in their only encounter.

The amazing thing about Gillespie and McGrath is that although their pace may have been down due to a lack of cricket, their all important line and length was spot on target virtually from the first ball they bowled.

Andy Bichel has been playing a lot of cricket, and it showed as he was around top pace and bettered the 140kph mark in each of his two matches.

A surprise as far as pace goes was the tameness of the bowling of Shane Watson. Touted as being as fast as anyone on Australia's domestic circuit and a genuine opening bowler, he looked anything but a fast-man. His fastest ball coming in game two at 136.0kph.

Veterans Wasim Akram (136.9kph) and Waqar Younis (137.4kph) managed to pip young Watson in the third match but it shouldn't be too long until we see just what the talented all-rounder is capable of. Once he begins to believe that he belongs at this level, he should loosen up somewhat and justify the faith which has being shown in his bowling. A couple of years back, Dennis Lillee showed some faith in him and took the then 18-year-old Watson to the MRF Pace Academy in India. Dennis Lillee has an eye for spotting a fine young 'quick'.

Shahid Afridi never fails to amaze me with the speed of his fast-ball. Off just a few steps he is able to make the jump from his standard 100kph to over 130kph almost at will. This is surely a rare sight in world cricket today.

What the whole world really wanted to see was the match up between Shoaib and Lee. But the 'main event' nearly turned into a non-event as injury and poor form threatened to quash the battle before it had even begun.

The television station responsible for showing the series in Australia had run their advertising campaign around the pace battle between the pair and a no-show would mean both poor ratings and a few television gurus with more than a little egg on their face.

A special commemorative piece of memorabilia was even being promoted with signed pictures of the pair. The framed pictures entitled "Pace Fury" and selling for $395.00 (Aus) highlights the pair and also credits the men with speeds of 157.4kph for Lee and 157.2kph for Shoaib. One can only assume that the window of opportunity between the March 8, 2002 when Lee bowled 157.4kph (EDH guns) and April 12, 2002 when Shoaib hit 159.5kph (EDH guns) was utilised to both design and produce what is a marvellous testament to these two wonderful athletes.

The bowling speeds recorded during this series proved Shoaib as completely dominant in both pace and skill. This dynamic duo had only the second of the three matches pitted against each other and each of the men were carrying baggage of some sort.

Shoaib was clearly limping and labouring in his run to the bowling crease during his first match, yet as we have come to expect from Shoaib, he was able to exceed 145kph almost at will. His sharpest delivery was 151.9kph and he walked away with the top 10 speeds of the match.

An interesting bit of byplay between the speed freaks came when Shoaib had just taken the wicket of Bichel and Lee strode to the crease. Shoaib eyeballed his fellow paceman and gestured towards his own head suggesting that a fast bouncer was imminent. The crowd loved it and saw the humour of the situation when the first ball to Lee was found closing in on his big toe at 148.4kph. Lee did exceptionally well to dig the ball out.

Shoaib's 150kph in-swinging yorker is fast becoming the most feared weapon in world cricket and has proved as deadly as a side-winder missile, honing in on the stumps. The New Zealanders were the first to bear the brunt of Shoaib's new found combination of speed, accuracy and lateral movement in April and now it was Australia's turn.

The Australian batsmen have shown their dislike for genuine pacemen with Makhaya Ntini and Shane Bond dominating during the one-dayers earlier in the year, but now Shoaib was in another league altogether. Ricky Ponting (151.1kph), Darren Lehmann (150.3kph) and Michael Bevan (152.3kph) were dismissed in successive overs from Shoaib with balls exceeding 150kph. In his 96 balls bowled in the series, he exceeded the 150kph mark 19 times, 16 of those balls came in Shoaib's second match when his injured leg seemed less of a concern.

In that match, he bowled at a top speed of 153.9kph, just 0.9kph short of the fastest ball recorded by IDS on Australian soil and 0.8kph shy of Shoaib's fastest ball in Australia. He has pushed the consistently accurate IDS guns even higher still, in Sharjah when he recorded 155.7kph.

Shoaib looked perhaps one match away from recording that sort of pace again but more importantly ended the day as man of the match and also player of the series. In Shoaib's last three series he has taken 23 wickets at 13.5 with a s/r of 21.4. Combine that with an economy rate of under four runs per over and you can see why Shoaib is being hailed as the best one-day bowler on the world's stage.

Lee's poor economy rate of late was the focus of much media attention in the lead up to this series. Lee would no doubt realise that continued inaccuracy may ultimately mean the difference between being a hero or a spectator in the forthcoming World Cup. Over his last five series, Lee has conceded 5.3 runs per over and although he has the ability to break a game wide open with a few wickets in quick succession, it was deemed the Lee is not in Australia's best 11 players. His only opportunity to impress came in the second game of the three-match series.

The fastest ball which Lee produced against Pakistan was a relatively slow 147.3kph and he only exceed 145kph with four of his 60 legal deliveries. A worrying sign came early for Lee when he conceded three wides in his first over, two of those balls above 145kph. But although it was never going to be Lee's day for setting any speed records, he performed admirably and was far from disgraced. Lee ended the day with two for 44, both wickets coming in an inspired burst during his fourth over.

If Lee was to get into the 150kph plus range during this series, then realistically he needed to play in all three matches. Lee's pace is different to Shoaib's in that Lee needs a few consecutive matches under his belt before he really hits top gear. For instance, in the three Test series against New Zealand last year, it took him until the third match before he moved into the 'express lane' recording 154.5kph and he continued in the vein throughout the following four months of cricket. Lee's speed culminated in producing the 157.4kph and 157.3kph deliveries in March 2002 which temporarily knocked Shoaib off top spot in the pace race. Lee has never bowled at 99.4mph (159.97kph) as more than a few recent reports have suggested.

Lee usually builds up speed as a match progresses and in individual overs he customarily bowls his fastest balls in ball numbers 4 to 6. Shoaib on the other hand exceeds 150kph regardless of whether he has had an extended break from the game and often his fastest speeds come during his first twelve balls of a match.

Shoaib came into this series as the 'world champion of speed', the unofficial world record holder and in the best form of his life. He left with his reputation enhanced and their is no disputing that Shoaib is the fastest bowler in the world.

Game 2:

First spell
1st over - 136.2, 139.3, 144.8, 144.5, 144.6, 151.0
2nd over - 148.3, 146.1, 144.0, 141.7, 148.9, 145.0
3rd over - 145.3, 145.1, 147.8, 150.2, 151.9, 147.2
4th over - 140.6, 145.1, 144.0, 149.6, 120.0, 145.0
5th over - 144.5, 141.4, 146.7, 121.8, 139.0, 151.6
6th over - 145.1, 142.5, 138.9, 145.3*, 136.8, 132.2, 114.0

Second spell
7th over - 135.7, 115.0, 138.9, 147.0*, 145.9, 140.3, 112.6
8th over - 133.5, 138.4, 148.4, 145.9, 148.4, 146.1

Game 3:

First spell
1st over - 131.4, 139.3, 144.4, 148.7, 152.0, 151.1
2nd over - 149.8, 151.5*, 151.1, 148.5, 150.6, 150.3, 152.8
3rd over - 147.4, 151.1, 152.3, 152.0, 151.1, 152.0
4th over - 153.6, 149.1, 148.2, 148.7, 152.0, 153.9
5th over - 147.1, 146.1, 123.6, 145.9*, 149.8, 144.1, 149.1*, 148.2
6th over - DNR, 143.8, DNR, 142.7, 144.6, 145.2

Second spell
7th over - 141.9, 148.4, 147.9, 149.5, 146.5, 114.6
8th over - 140.2, 144.3, 121.5, 143.8*, 150.6, 151.1, 149.1

Game 2:

First spell
1st over - 135.6*, 138.9, 140.9, 141.4, 145.0*, 146.1*, 141.4, 137.9, 142.8
2nd over - 139.5, 140.3, 140.7, 140.0, 143.1, 143.3
3rd over - 137.7*, 142.5, 143.7*, 146.1, 143.7, 141.4, 139.3, 142.6
4th over - 143.4, 142.5, 142.0, 145.9, 144.0, 142.0
5th over - 147.3, 141.0, 144.5, 139.3, 138.9, 142.0
6th over - 140.6, 142.5, 140.9, 140.9, 142.2, 140.9

Second spell
7th over - 140.0, 142.5, 140.9, 140.9, 142.2, 140.9
8th over - 138.9, 138.5, 141.8, 142.2, 136.8, 134.3
9th over - 136.0, 139.7, 142.2, 139.3, 142.3, 145.3
10th over - 142.2, 138.4, 139.5, 138.9, 137.3*, 140.7, 140.9

* - Wides and no-balls
DNR - did not register on the monitors