After recent news suggests that Siraj is the world’s fastest bowler, that has grabbed people’s attention towards him as he claims to have thrown the fastest ball ever at a speed of 181 km/h (112.5 mph). Due to such claims people have started talking, whether he did throw such a ball or not, skepticism is still present. With that being said these claims aren’t too far fetched, let’s take a closer look at the claims, the technology involved and has fast bowling evolved over the years.
This leads us to the claim 181 Kilometers Per Hour Delivery made by Siraj. To back the claim the technology out there definitely did help in measuring the speed of the ball. The technology allows us to do so and Mohammed Siraj is the ideal candidate as he has been dominating international cricket at an alarming rate. However what is alarming is the captain states that he threw a ball of 181 kph, now that would place siraj amongst the fastest bowlers in century as a record.
Despite skepticism, many of Saraj’s professional international matches focused on tracking some key speed indicators. Along Supporting measurement tools used by cricket boards, Reports estimate that Siraj’s delivery touched 181 km/h, which has fueled fan frenzy. However, its worth noting that, This will make siraj the contemporary record holder for fastest delivery ever thrown in cricket.
Understanding How Speed Monitoring Works
It is necessary to know the technique that we use to measure a bowler’s speed in order to confirm that Siraj’s 181 km/h delivery is truly the fastest. In present day cricket, the essential tools used for measuring delivery speeds include radar guns and high technology cameras. The purpose of these technologies is to record the speed of the ball from when the bowler delivers it to when it reaches the batsman.
Normally stationed behind the bowler or along the boundary line, the radar gun makes use of the Doppler radar system to quite often give the speed of the ball. Other systems that are camera-based like Hawk-Eye are used to pinpoint the calling speed of delivery using the motion of the ball instead.
However, there are many things that go wrong with these systems. Many times, radar guns tend to get the figure quite right, but due to technical issues, bad calibration or positioning of the device, the speed ends up getting calculated even above the known figures. Earlier there have been cases when the same target aircraft or equipment got different readings depending on what system it was using.
World’s Fastest Cricket Deliveries
In order to understand whether Siraj’s delivery is one of the fastest or not, it is important to understand the record speeds that have been set in the world of cricket by various bowlers.
Shoaib Akhtar from Pakistan crystalized his name in the guinness book of world records in the 2003 Cricket World Cup when he made a fast delivery record of about 161.3 km/h (100.23 mph).
Akhtar is officially recognized as one of the fastest people to ever bowl with high speed recorded almost throughout his entire career.
After a gap of 15 years, Akhtar somehow broke the barrier of Leicestershire bowlers, reaching the speed of 161 km/h with the aid of other fast bowlers. There is no evidence in the history of the sport that can show/certainly prove someone who drowned other them leveled at the speed of 161.1 km/h.
Siraj Patel is said to bowl at a blistering speed of 181 km/h. However, Siraj does not maintain a high estimate. Supposedly Siraj states, if i were to bowl at that speed it would mean that I have revolutionized the game of cricket if we take the current estimated speed into account. Life does not work like that, if Siraj were to apply the 181 Kilometers target to his bow, he’d be tweaking about 20 kilometers up higher than before.
There is proof that the technology used to track the shooting speed at the time of filming may have been malfunctioning, and there is no confirmation from Cricket Organizations confirming their claims or the recorded speed, which makes them appear unreasonable.
181 km/h is in itself a very unreasonable estimation because it is said and proven that even the fastest of bowlers struggle to achieve that mark.
Contextualizing the discussion, only a handful of players have within their career bowled even over the 160 km/h mark, let alone going over the 180 km/h barrier, which as per the stat claimed by ICC, depicts that the player is an all-time great.
There are also Others Experts, who in any other field would have performed with the same level of success; however, this was not possible in this case.
Siraj however, as time progressed, was kept being pushed back or forward due to the workload or the mechanics it took to regularly throw such fast baits, making 181 km/h a challenging milestone to reach, regardless of the League.
Many fast pacers and cricket experts wholeheartedly agree that over the course of history, advancement in training and technology is also benefiting players, especially Outstanding fast bowlers like Siraj. Claiming that the record set will (most likely) not remain unchallenged, however, Siraj’s claim of breaking it, specifically in history is highly suspicious, making it highly probable that this was a fluke.
All in all, Siraj’s talent (no doubt), skill and practice is superb, to him being a 181 wild shatterer making even me start doubting.
The transformation of a SA pacer remains one of the most intriguing stories in modern cricket, and regardless of the sanctioned speed statistics, Siraj is among the world’s best bowlers.
If you are interested for more: Did Mohammed Siraj Bowl the Fastest Delivery in Cricket History? India Pacer’s 181 Kmph Claim Under Scrutiny” “Harry Brook Powers England’s Bold Revival