some bowlers get all the hype...

[al Furqaan]

...from cricinfo.

dale steyn is officially listed as "right arm fast". i'm not disputing that at all, steyn is legitimately express without doubt. there is article about article, that cricinfo publishes about dale steyn..."steyn killed australia, and he bowls 150 k" and then "steyn is preparing for the aussie tour, and he bowls 150 k" and then "steyn wrestled an aliggator, and he bowls 150 k". remember that quote about steyn only bowling 140 k against bangladesh, cuz we don't require his full pace? i think tamim put a good licking to that theory, hahah...so i guess steyn's 150+ thunderbolts are reserved for australia and india, huh?

but what about mitchell johnson?

cricinfo has MJ at "left arm fast medium" which is also the tag of chaminda vaas. now vaas bowls at around 120 k, at his quickest, and the LFM designation is from his prime when vaas probably was able to hit 135 k and hit 130 regularly.

but in the current SA-AUS test, lets compare the speeds of Johnson and Steyn in their first innings spells, according to CI's own commentary...

Steyn - 140.4, 144.7, 143.8, 143.2, 143.7,141.1, 141.9, 141, 146.2, 144.3, 145.9, 142.5

Johnson - 150.9, 147.3, 150.7, 146.2, 148.7, 147.2

Now, CI usually has a habit of showing the faster speeds clocked by the bowler, in addition to some of the slower ones. Hence, given a nice sample size like we have above, the speeds should be fairly indicative of how fast the guys were really bowling.

Steyn average pace = 143.2 kph
Johnson average pace = 148.5 kph

steyn didn't touch 150 even once...if he had, CI would definitely have mentioned it. in fact, the closest he got was 146.2 a full 4 ks under 150. by contrast, johnson's slowest displayed speed was equal to steyn's fastest.

so who is the real fast medium?

[Tigers_eye]

As long as they are getting wickets who cares what they are tagged with? I'd take a fit Vass/Rasel any day of the week over certain expresses.

[al Furqaan]

Originally Posted by Tigers_eye
As long as they are getting wickets who cares what they are tagged with? I'd take a fit Vass/Rasel any day of the week over certain expresses.

agreed a 100%.

but the point is that media (i.e cricinfo) seems to have glaring inconsistencies. talha jubair is a right arm medium? the guy was 140 k bowler back when he was health...OK fine, he was 135 k for sure. yet a guy like kyle mills is fast medium bowling at 128 k most of the time.

there just need to be a consistent account based on the usual pace of the bowler. people might disagree, but at least one particular source can maintain consistency. otherwise why bother tagging bowlers to begin with?

[Nafi]

Another one is our rubel hossain, who bowls around 140K, but ia tagged as medium-fast.

I guess its not that bad considering he's a new guy.

BTW steyn did hit 150K a couple of times in that match.

[Gowza]

cricinfo have always been inconsistent with this, steyn is capable of hitting 150k, but he doesn't do it very often (whether he's bowling within himself or not is irrelevant imo because a bowler is what they bowl not what they can bowl). johnson tbh wasn't hitting the speeds he is now when he first came into the national team, he was more of a low 140k bowler back then, but in the last year he's been bowling more balls 145k+ and even tipping 150k on occassion.

[nzfan]

The real question is why does it matter what cricinfo put? They are not the rulers of international cricket

[al Furqaan]

Originally Posted by Gowza
cricinfo have always been inconsistent with this, steyn is capable of hitting 150k, but he doesn't do it very often (whether he's bowling within himself or not is irrelevant imo because a bowler is what they bowl not what they can bowl). johnson tbh wasn't hitting the speeds he is now when he first came into the national team, he was more of a low 140k bowler back then, but in the last year he's been bowling more balls 145k+ and even tipping 150k on occassion.

as far as i recall, johnson has hit 150 in pretty much every match he's played...he might very well be the fastest bowler in the world in terms of being able to hit 150 innings in and innings out.

[al Furqaan]

Originally Posted by nzfan
The real question is why does it matter what cricinfo put? They are not the rulers of international cricket

true, but they're the source everyone goes to...

[Gowza]

Originally Posted by al Furqaan
as far as i recall, johnson has hit 150 in pretty much every match he's played...he might very well be the fastest bowler in the world in terms of being able to hit 150 innings in and innings out.

probably has done in every test match he's played, but i reckon early on in his ODI career there'd be a few matches where he didn't. from memory he really started to bowl quick around about when australia had a one-day tour of india (think it was a 7 match series) a couple of years ago. he still bowled some pretty quick balls but personally the first time i saw him bowl 150kph was in one of his early test matches.

i agree that he may well be the fastest bowler in the world atm. steyn, sharma, lee and tait are his rivals in this department and the first 2 don't hit 150kph regularly, lee is hitting 150kph less and less and tait barely plays.

[nycpro96]

mitchell johnson is scary fast. definitely earns rank as left arm fast (lf) shouldnt rubel be catagorized at at least fast medium