Pace bowling is an art and clocking high speeds regularly is no mean feat. It requires a fit body to do such a thing. Not to forget, human bodies are not naturally built for rolling the arm for a day. This is the reason that fast bowlers have a shorter career compared to batters and spinners. Meanwhile, a very unusual incident happened during the first T20I between Ireland and India.
The visitors had won the toss and elected to bowl first in a rain-truncated game. Bhuvneshwar Kumar came to bowl the opening over of the 12-over innings. Ireland's Paul Stirling had taken the strike. The first ball of the innings was aimed towards the middle and leg stump which was a dot ball. What followed was completely hilarious and unexpected. The speedometer showed that the ball was bowled at 201 kmph.
This is the first incident in the game. In the same over, the speed of one of the deliveries was recorded at 208 kmph. Talking about the over, Kumar took the wicket of Andrew Balbirnie as he was clean bowled. For the unversed, this isn't the first incident in cricket where the speedometer has acted weirdly. During the 2013 Indian T20 League, A technical glitch once showed that Morne Morkel had 'bowled' at 173 kmph delivery
In the 2020 U19 World Cup, Sri Lanka's Matheesha Pathirana was recorded bowling at 175 kmph delivery against India. Officially, Shoaib Akhtar from Pakistan has bowled the fastest delivery in the game. In 2003, he bowled a 161 kmph delivery. The record is still intact with Mitchell Starc coming close (160.9) in 2015 but failing to breach the record. Recently, Umran Malik was recorded to bowl a 161.3 kmph in a practice session during the South Africa series.
Talking about the speedometer glitch, the fans have got something to laugh about. They are aware of the fact that it is humanly impossible to bowl at such speeds. Experts have earlier suggested that bowling at 160 is a rare thing.
This is how Twitter reacted
Shoaib Akhtar who? pic.twitter.com/ZHwmLSTD9m
β Karan (@karannpatelll) June 26, 2022
#IREvIND
β A (@AppeFizzz) June 26, 2022
Bhuvi bowling with 208 km/h πππ pic.twitter.com/e9pTkYT5nb
WORLD RECORD BROKEN
β Rohit.Bishnoi (@The_kafir_boy_2) June 26, 2022
Bhuvi broken his own record by bowling at 208 kmph. Bhuvi launching rockets today. This is unbelievable#indvsire #IREvIND pic.twitter.com/FFvzLGfPsN
201 Kmphπ―
β CricTracker (@Cricketracker) June 26, 2022
πΈ: @SonyLIV pic.twitter.com/J0OdJUoZbT
Umran bhaiπ±π±π±
β Yuvraj Dwivedi (@YuvrajD19170616) June 26, 2022
Bhai 1st ovr hai matlab bhuvi π
β luckie jat #ΰ€ ΰ€ΰ₯ΰ€¨ΰ₯ΰ€΅ΰ₯ΰ€° (@luckiejat) June 27, 2022
Konse chor bazar se mashine utha kar laye hai π
β Krishav (@iamkrishavC) June 26, 2022
They calculated the wind speed or ball speed?
β Prasad Gattu (@gprasad421) June 26, 2022
Bhuvi 201 km /h π
β Yash MSdian β’οΈ π¦ (@itzyash07) June 26, 2022
Hey @BhuviOfficial what did you do?#UmranMalik your Job is in Danger
β Siddiqui Tarique (@TM_Siddiqui) June 26, 2022