Full throttle

Speed freaks are in for a real treat on SuperSport over the next few weeks.

Brett Lee and Shoaib Akhtar will be screaming in and hurtling the ball at every unsuspecting batsman in sight at around 155kph, causing fellow team mates to cringe at the sight of self preservation 22 yards away. There is nothing more exciting in the game than a quality speed merchant.

Brett and Shoaib are very different, in more ways than one. Brett has developed his art into a science whereas Akhtar is more brute force. Both have one thing in common. The effort needed to propel their missiles means that the energy expended is enormous. Both put a great deal of stress on their bodies. At the point of delivery, there is approximately 15 times their body weight shooting through their robust frames and this culminates in enormous strain being channeled directly onto their front foot as it pounds the crease.

Of course, it all goes further than this. To be a great fast bowler one word is key….rhythm. That is a fast bowler’s best friend. We have all seen days where things go sadly awry for the new ball kings. This is when their rhythm deserts them and they fall back on simply trying to bowl too fast. This is the worst mistake an express bowler can make.

It is generally accepted that the likes of Lee, Ntini, Bond, Gillespie and co. attempt to bowl around 90% of full effort, keeping that extra 10% up their sleeves for that lethal quick yorker or bouncer. Akhtar appears to ignore this golden rule and is at full throttle when at his best. If you throw in his unique ability to action reverse swing, he can be an enormous handful.

Another comparison between the two to check out is the use of their wrists. Lee is very specific with his cocked wrist so that he can impart extra snap in delivery that equates to more pace. Shoaib on the other hand (pardon the pun!), appears to again largely ignore this technique and hurl the ball as ferociously as possible….sometimes with an extra whip coming from further up the arm. His well-chronicled hyper extension of the elbow joint enables this.

The time taken for the ball to reach the batsman at this speed is a mere 0.4 of a second. Not much time to firstly safeguard your health, secondly to preserve your wicket, thirdly to hit the ball, fourthly to score a run and finally to hit a boundary.

Enjoy the hostility and sheer exuberance of these two from the comfort of your lounge room and spare a thought for the poor bloke who is the target.

Watch SuperSport for your daily adrenalin rush!