Who is the most fearsome fast bowler you have seen

[First class]

6 hours ago, rkt.india said:

 

Most fearsome bowler since i started watching cricket.

Imagine the list of legends in this video clips, Tendulakar, Lara, Ponting, Hayden and some really good ones, Ganguly Gary Kirsten.

[Muloghonto]

16 hours ago, rkt.india said:

@Muloghonto check ponting bis batting over 100. Aus 344/4 but Akhtar is still clocking 153 kph. Akhtar was a natural fast bowler. Fitness didn't matter to him. At his worst fitness at 36 years of official age, carrying a paunch, guy was clocking 150 kph.  Likes of Akhtar, Brett Lee were of different category bowlers. These were bowlers whose stock deliveries at their peak used to be 150 kph. No current bowler can match them.

Akhar never bowled more than 2-3 overs on the trot over 150. That point remains and unlike your cricinfo commentary and stats reading, I’ve seen him live enough to know he was a express in a very limited capacity. 

[Rightarmfast]

4 hours ago, Muloghonto said:

Akhar never bowled more than 2-3 overs on the trot over 150. That point remains and unlike your cricinfo commentary and stats reading, I’ve seen him live enough to know he was a express in a very limited capacity. 

TBH, I would be super surprised if there was a bowler who would bowl 5-6 overs on a trot at 150k's. Shoaib was as quick as they come. Patterson and Devon Malcolm were  (98% chances ) almost as quick as him. 

What made the windies bowlers even more scary are lack of safety gears, rules favouring bowlers as against now, bouncier pitches. 

[MK55]

If Shoaib isn’t express, I don’t know which bowler since the late 90s is. Brett Lee on average must be quicker in ODIs over his entire career but when both were at their peak there wasn’t a difference between them. 

Definitely no other bowler since then comes close to these two. Now I don’t know what happened in the 80s.. so can’t comment on that.
 

[rkt.india]

6 hours ago, Muloghonto said:

Akhar never bowled more than 2-3 overs on the trot over 150. That point remains and unlike your cricinfo commentary and stats reading, I’ve seen him live enough to know he was a express in a very limited capacity. 

No bowler has done that. Are you insane? Express bowlers don't bowl more than 4-5 overs spell. Bowling 150 plus 3 overs on the trott is an incredible feat in itself. No bowler since the augment of speed guns have bowled a whole spell over 150. You think bowling over 150 is a joke. I have just posted a video where 35 year old Akhtar has bowled everything 150 or more in that spell.

[rkt.india]

1 hour ago, Rightarmfast said:

TBH, I would be super surprised if there was a bowler who would bowl 5-6 overs on a trot at 150k's. Shoaib was as quick as they come. Patterson and Devon Malcolm were  (98% chances ) almost as quick as him. 

What made the windies bowlers even more scary are lack of safety gears, rules favouring bowlers as against now, bouncier pitches. 

In the history of speed guns, there have been only two bowlers Lee And Akhtar who could bowl even two bowlers who could bowl even 2-3 o overs on the trott at 150 or more.

[Vilander]

4 minutes ago, rkt.india said:

In the history of speed guns, there have been only two bowlers Lee And Akhtar who could bowl even two bowlers who could bowl even 2-3 o overs on the trott at 150 or more.

Tait could do it in Loi. Its Lee > Akthar > Tait in terms of peak speed sustainment. Honourable mentions Fidel Edwards and Bond. 

[Vilander]

 

Thats one claim

[Rightarmfast]

10 minutes ago, rkt.india said:

In the history of speed guns, there have been only two bowlers Lee And Akhtar who could bowl even two bowlers who could bowl even 2-3 o overs on the trott at 150 or more.

Thats also because speed guns were used after these 2 bowlers started playing. There would have been a few bowlers touching such speeds, but how often  and at what frequency is the question.

[rkt.india]

7 hours ago, Rightarmfast said:

Thats also because speed guns were used after these 2 bowlers started playing. There would have been a few bowlers touching such speeds, but how often  and at what frequency is the question.

I am only talking about after speed guns came into use. My point, in 20 years, we have seen only two such bowlers. We can Tait as well in this. So, 3. 3 in 20 years. But if we some poster on the forum, it will look like 80s were filled with such bowlers. Such bowlers are exceptions, extremely rare breed. 

[rkt.india]

7 hours ago, Vilander said:

Tait could do it in Loi. Its Lee > Akthar > Tait in terms of peak speed sustainment. Honourable mentions Fidel Edwards and Bond. 

Edwards and Bond were a notch below the above three. They are in Starc, Archer pace category. I didnt include Tait because he hardly could play much. But yes, he did too though not in tests. We can see that Lee and Akhtar came in 90s, around 97-99, then came Tait in late 2000s in 2008. No such bowler in last 10 years. It shows how rare such bowlers are. And some people believe we had so many bowlers bowling 95 mph average speed in 70s-80s. They were 150kph average speeds for 6-7 over spellsnin test cricket which has not happened in the history of speed guns in the game.

[Real McCoy]

From a wicket taking point of view, it was always Glen Mcgrath. For me he represented the inevitable - the certainty of defeat when India is facing him. In the 99 wc, I remember him removing Sachin and Dravid in the first over itself killing any chance of chasing a huge total put up by the Aussies. He also removed Lara in the previous match. All 3 fell for a duck. He had the capability to take big wickets in key matches. He had the wood over the best batsmen of the time, Lara and Sachin. I don't think anybody took him on except these two on their best days but Mcgrath always ended up victorious. Dravid and Kallis were no match for Mcgrath thats why I rate them lower then the other two I have mentioned. Dravid while commenting on a match said how HE used to fear facing him. He said Mcgrath bowled on a length you should be playing forward to but since he generates the steep bounce, you couldn't and stay rooted to the crease and gave him all sort of problems. He didn't even want to recollect these memories as it was a nightmare for him let alone a fan like me.

From a pace point of view, Shoaib Akhtar when he started his career. Him with two Ws, Razzaq and Saqlain made for a verstaile bowing unit. He used to go for runs but he always made sure he picked key wickets. His bowling in Kolkata where he dismissed Dravid and Sachin in consecutive deliveries are notable. I remember Ganguly used to play off the backfoot to good length deliveries like how Raina is doing now and Ganguly was a better bat than Raina. IIRC Ganguly was hit in the ribcage once while trying to pull him. He used to be express pace between 1999 to 2003. Sachin's assault on him in the 2003 WC kind of removed that fear I used to have of him and Sehwag later on bashing him senseless removed it completely.

[Vilander]

2 hours ago, rkt.india said:

Edwards and Bond were a notch below the above three. They are in Starc, Archer pace category. I didnt include Tait because he hardly could play much. But yes, he did too though not in tests. We can see that Lee and Akhtar came in 90s, around 97-99, then came Tait in late 2000s in 2008. No such bowler in last 10 years. It shows how rare such bowlers are. And some people believe we had so many bowlers bowling 95 mph average speed in 70s-80s. They were 150kph average speeds for 6-7 over spellsnin test cricket which has not happened in the history of speed guns in the game.

The problem with starc archer and certain extent bond is that its unclear if they are express or are they highly fast bowlers like say Tino best or harmison sami and few etc who could do small spells at 148 to 152 but not consistantly. Starc for instance at times is 140 to 148 and Archer can become a 135 to 146 bowler at times in certain games outright. But Bond could do spells were he bowled up to 155, starc and archer did the same.

[Rightarmfast]

23 minutes ago, Vilander said:

The problem with starc archer and certain extent bond is that its unclear if they are express or are they highly fast bowlers like say Tino best or harmison sami and few etc who could do small spells at 148 to 152 but not consistantly. Starc for instance at times is 140 to 148 and Archer can become a 135 to 146 bowler at times in certain games outright. But Bond could do spells were he bowled up to 155, starc and archer did the same.

Bond would be more towards express. Starc and Archer are fast. And we also need to give time to Archer. you never know if he can sustain his pace.

[maniac]

43 minutes ago, Real McCoy said:

From a wicket taking point of view, it was always Glen Mcgrath. For me he represented the inevitable - the certainty of defeat when India is facing him. In the 99 wc, I remember him removing Sachin and Dravid in the first over itself killing any chance of chasing a huge total put up by the Aussies. He also removed Lara in the previous match. All 3 fell for a duck. He had the capability to take big wickets in key matches. He had the wood over the best batsmen of the time, Lara and Sachin. I don't think anybody took him on except these two on their best days but Mcgrath always ended up victorious. Dravid and Kallis were no match for Mcgrath thats why I rate them lower then the other two I have mentioned. Dravid while commenting on a match said how HE used to fear facing him. He said Mcgrath bowled on a length you should be playing forward to but since he generates the steep bounce, you couldn't and stay rooted to the crease and gave him all sort of problems. He didn't even want to recollect these memories as it was a nightmare for him let alone a fan like me.

From a pace point of view, Shoaib Akhtar when he started his career. Him with two Ws, Razzaq and Saqlain made for a verstaile bowing unit. He used to go for runs but he always made sure he picked key wickets. His bowling in Kolkata where he dismissed Dravid and Sachin in consecutive deliveries are notable. I remember Ganguly used to play off the backfoot to good length deliveries like how Raina is doing now and Ganguly was a better bat than Raina. IIRC Ganguly was hit in the ribcage once while trying to pull him. He used to be express pace between 1999 to 2003. Sachin's assault on him in the 2003 WC kind of removed that fear I used to have of him and Sehwag later on bashing him senseless removed it completely.

Same thing with Waqar Younis after that Jadeja assault. I hadn't seen a lot of waqar younis vs India till 96 and obviously he had this huge reputation of being the most lethal bowler in the world and seen him bowl a couple of spells against hapless Kiwis in Sharjah. I never feared Waqar after that day, even when he bowled good spells ,he looked vulnerable

 

Wasim was the only guy Indians had difficulty getting away even though Sadagopan Ramesh handled him like a boss in that 99 series.

[Vilander]

20 minutes ago, Rightarmfast said:

Bond would be more towards express. Starc and Archer are fast. And we also need to give time to Archer. you never know if he can sustain his pace.

This really means 

 

Akthar Lee Tait....Fidel Bond. Allegedly Thompson Andy and probably Holding ? Were the only express bowlers. 

[express bowling]

I don't think very high speed readings are that important for bowling fearsome or hostile spells, although very high speeds do help if bounce and accuracy are also there.

I have seen Archer bowl hostile spells at 138 to 143 k too. He has this ability ball after ball  to get the ball to climb rather awkwardly and with good accuracy 

 

[Rightarmfast]

8 minutes ago, Vilander said:

This really means 

 

Akthar Lee Tait....Fidel Bond. Allegedly Thompson Andy and probably Holding ? Were the only express bowlers. 

Devon Malcolm, Patterson, Frank Tyson, apart from few others.

[Real McCoy]

1 hour ago, maniac said:

Same thing with Waqar Younis after that Jadeja assault. I hadn't seen a lot of waqar younis vs India till 96 and obviously he had this huge reputation of being the most lethal bowler in the world and seen him bowl a couple of spells against hapless Kiwis in Sharjah. I never feared Waqar after that day, even when he bowled good spells ,he looked vulnerable

 

Wasim was the only guy Indians had difficulty getting away even though Sadagopan Ramesh handled him like a boss in that 99 series.

waqar had a few injuries by then. he used to blow away batsmen with outright pace in the early 90s. I didn't witness them before youtube. but he was still lively in 96. he hit some poor uae batsman who was not wearing a helmet in that wc. he also bowled a hostile spell against the poms. he was 25 after 8 overs with a couple of wickets against us. jaddu took 40 off the next 2. jaddu also took him on in sharjah immediately after that series. he was never the same after that.

wasim had already lost his pace by 99. he was about the pace of mcgrath. fast medium but not express pace. while mcgrath had bounce, wasim had swing. it doesn't matter if you have scored a hundred and seeing the ball like a football but wasim would bowl a ball that is unplayable. i have seen him bowl an inswinger to the rhb and it tailed away at the last moment. thats what happened to rahul dravid in chennai on the last day. it takes a genius to dislodge dravid.

but akhtar was in prime form in 2003. no injuries yet. he had just bowled the fastest ball in known history against poor poms again. then sachin and sehwag happened to take him to the cleaners and the rest is history

[MechEng]

I'm not too obsessed with raw pace, it waters down the art of pace bowling.

 

The most feared bowler is McGrath. All deliveries in the corridor of uncertainty at very steep bounce meant he could pick up a wicket every ball. There was never an instant where a batsman has felt at ease while facing McGrath.