“It’s a fantastic achievement because in her sphere of the sport she’s done something no-one else has.” – Brett Schultz on Shabnim Ismail’s record-breaking delivery.
Telford Vice / Cape Town
THE difference between the fastest balls bowled by men and women is, almost, a six-lined racerunner. A what? A small striped lizard common to the southern US and Mexico that boasts a top speed of 28.97 kilometres an hour.
Shabnim Ismail bowled a delivery to Meg Lanning in a WPL game in Delhi on Tuesday that the broadcasters’ speed gun clocked at 132.1 kilometres an hour — the fastest ball sent down by a woman since pace has been measured. But it was a long way off cricket’s quickest recorded delivery, the 161.3 km/h screamer sent by Shoaib Akhtar to Nick Knight in a 2003 World Cup match at Newlands.
That makes Ismail’s record ball 29.2 km/h slower than Shoaib’s. Or 0.23 km/h behind the six-lined racerunner’s highest documented speed. Did that mean Ismail’s effort should be regarded as inferior?
“It’s a fantastic achievement because in her sphere of the sport she’s done something no-one else has,” Brett Schultz told Cricbuzz. Then he launched into pithy rubbishing of such juxtapositional whataboutery: “It’s similar to when people try to compare players from different eras. The greats are the greats, but you can’t compare the greats of different eras.
“People say bowlers were quicker back in the day, but they play a different game now. Just look at the bats — the quicker the ball comes the quicker it goes. I used to run in and try to bowl fast, faster and fastest. Now they’ve got about 17 different deliveries that they bowl.
“Purists will see it differently, because purists are old and archaic. But the game is old and archaic. There are a lot more people watching cricket now because it’s not a purist’s game anymore. So you’ve got to look across parallels. If you’re going to compare the fastest deliveries by male and female bowlers you’re not using the right comparisons.”
By another measure genuine fast bowlers aren’t easily parsed, regardless of their gender, size, and era. Schultz stands 1.89 metres tall, weighed around 100 kilogrammes during his playing days, and let loose left-arm and lusty from under an unruly blond mop. Ismail, all 1.65 metres and 60 kilogrammes of her, roars in beneath a bobbing dark ponytail and unleashes using her right arm. If Ismail is a six-lined racerunner Schultz is a swamp alligator.
The relevant common factor is in the eyes of the batters facing them. Like they used to when Schultz bowled, Ismail makes them look as if they have an urgent need to be somewhere, anywhere, other than at the crease. It’s not so much about comparing bowlers like Schultz and Ismail as it is about seeing the points of commonality that connect them in cricket, even if in nothing else.
Schultz played nine Tests from November 1992 to October 1997, taking 37 wickets at 20.24. He was particularly lethal during South Africa’s first series in Sri Lanka in August and September 1993, when he claimed 20 at 16.30 in the three matches. Injuries stunted what might have been a career as illustrious as Ismail’s. She is South Africa’s leading all-time wicket-taker in both white-ball formats. Overall she is second only to Jhulan Goswami in ODIs and fifth in T20Is.
How quick was Schultz? “I don’t remember there being speed guns when I played, but people say I bowled at 156 [km/h], or whatever. I can’t say that with any certainty. The only thing I can say is that, whatever speed I bowled at, it certainly buggered up my body. I’ve had knee replacements, stiff shoulders …”
Did he not wonder whether he would hurt himself? “No. That was the point — it was flat-out Schultz, not brakes Bezuidenhout. That was my mentality, even in the nets. Being in the nets with me was like playing in a match. That’s why I didn’t last. That and weighing between 98 and 102 kilogrammes, and bowling with a big catapult leap. And having a captain like Kepler [Wessels] bowling me for 37 overs in an innings [36.5, in fact, in Colombo’s heat and humidity]. But I still have good memories.”
Ismail, who is as verbally punchy as Schultz, particularly on the subject of her own bowling, will also leave the game with a wealth of warm recollections. Some will feature fear in opponents’ eyes, because the threat of extreme pace is as frightening, or more, than pace itself.
Certainly, Knight looked disconcerted while Shoaib tore towards him cradling the record-wrecking ball that day in Cape Town more than 21 years ago. But the left-hander dealt adeptly with a delivery that pitched on leg stump on a probing length. The ball would have cleared middle stump had Knight not risen onto his toes to nudge it off his hip towards square leg. He played the stroke as comfortably as he might have to a ball bowled by a Sunday afternoon trundler on the Essex ovals of his youth.
Ismail’s delivery to Lanning elicited the kind of electrifying appeal that has become part of the enthralling package the South African offers all who watch her play. The ball, which easily beat the flicking Australian, was speared into the pads and looked to be heading down leg wide of the stumps. Even so, Ismail spun around, thrust her arms upward into a vicious V, and bellowed.
Because that’s what fast bowlers do, whether they’re called Shoaib, Schultz or Shabnim. Because, as Shoaib himself is reputed to have said, pace is pace, yaar. We know it when we see it, and we don’t need a speed gun to tell us the comet has come. We need only eyes, and not to blink.
Cricbuzz
Bulletproof Truth 