Photo: BCCI
Delhi Capitals pacer Anrich Nortje has impressed everyone from the start of this season. His ability to bowl at brute pace and hit the deck hard has even caught the eye of many fast bowling legends like Ian Bishop and Brett Lee. In the recently concluded IPL match between DC and RR, he shocked everyone by bowling the fastest delivery in the history of the IPL. The ball he bowled to Jos Buttler was marked at 156.2 Kmph, surpassing all previous IPL fast bowling records.
The over in which Nortje bowled this brutal delivery was fascinating in all aspects. As a surprise move, DC skipper Shreyas Iyer decided to give the new ball to young Tushar Deshpande instead of Nortje to bowl in tandem with the lead pacer Rabada. He was hit for a few runs and was immediately taken off the attack. The next immediate over from that end was bowled by Nortje and it’s where the drama unfolded. Almost all his deliveries in that over were clocked close to and above 150 Kmph. Jos Buttler who was on strike used his pace to great effect to score a maximum and even scooped the ball over fine leg to score consecutive boundaries.
Ball hits stumps and goes for a four!
The brutal over went as follows:
The first ball by Nortje was bowled at 148.2Kmph. Buttled picked it up beautifully and whacked it over long-on for a maximum. The next two balls were bowled at 152.3Kmph and 152.1Kmph respectively and it both went for singles. He followed it up with a 146.4Kph delivery (which as it turned out was the slowest of that over), that Buttler scooped over short fine leg for a boundary. What came in next from a furious Nortje was a historical ball. The fastest in the history of the IPL- 156.2 Kmph. But it was not good enough to trap Buttler. He again scooped it to the same region. And right when you thought that Buttler had been dominating that over, in came Nortje with his last ball of that over. Clocked at 155.1Kmph, he bowled a full-ish in line delivery aiming at the stumps. Buttler tried to play across the line and hence ended up watching his stumps cartwheeling. Too fast from Nortje!
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