Pace bowlers, or fast bowlers or pacemen, rely on speed to get a batsman out. This type of bowler can be further classified according to the speed at which they bowl the ball on average. For details see Fast bowling.
Most pace bowlers are medium-fast to fast in top level cricket. In general, bowlers of this type are described as right arm or left arm "fast", or right arm or left arm "fast-medium", and so on. The fastest bowler ever in the cricket history was Australian Jeff Thomson. Due to the unavailability of ball speed measuring devices his bowling speed couldn't be measured in every match. In 1975 during a Test match, he was timed using high-speed cameras with a release speed of 160.45 km/h; the following year he was timed at 160.58 km/h using conventional radar. But these speeds were measured at the batting end. Nowadays bowling speed is measured just at the instance when bowler releases the ball. So if this technique was used in old times, Jeff Thomson would have probably been clocked at more than 170 km/h. Australian wicket-keeper Rod Marsh kept wicket to Thomson for most of his Test career and claimed that Thomson bowled upwards of 180 km/h. The fastest delivery that has ever been officially recorded clocked in at 100.2 mph (161.26kph) and was bowled by Shoaib Akhtar Pakistan during a match against England. Another technique of fast bowling is the sling action. This action generates extra speed but sacrifices control. Some bowlers who apply the sling action are Shaun Tait, Mitchell Johnson, Fidel Edwards and Lasith Malinga.
Read more about this topic: Types Of Bowlers In Cricket
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