Watch: Shahid Afridi bowls fastest delivery by a spinner

Watch: Shahid Afridi bowls fastest delivery by a spinner: Pace is not generally the first term which comes to mind when you talk about a spinner. And probably not even the second. Guile, Flight, Drift, and turn are ingredients more likely to be thrown into discussion when explaining the art of spin bowling. A spinner has to beat the batsman in the air with his flight, unsettle his foot work and outfox him with the deviation off the pitch. In many cases though, the ball which does not deviate is the one causing problems. In all the scenarios it is centrally about deception and pre-empting the batsman’s mind.

Leg spinners in particular are a wicket taking option. Wrist spin is a difficult art and ridden with the risk of being expensive without reward. But that also presents opportunities if you are clever. Many classic leggies get a little bothered when Shahid Afridi’s name is included in the list. And they have a reason. Afridi started off as a conventional leg spinner but discovered the pace angle pretty soon.

That lead to some experts arguing that fast bowlers who can’t find a place in the national team turn to spin bowling in Pakistan. While tweakers all over the world are being found of suspect actions in their attempt to bowl quick, it is remarkable how Afridi bowls those bazookas with a perfectly smooth action.

During one of the T20I games of the National Bank series in New Zealand Afridi caught Tim Southee unaware as he fired in the quicker one which disturbed the timber. And as the commentators said it was too good for the lanky pacer who was shell-shocked.

It read an unbelievable 134.4 km/h on the speed gun. Now that is the faster one of some of the subcontinent bowlers like Bhuvneshwar Kumar. It can be safely argued that Cricket has never seen an entertainer like ‘Lala’. He excelled greatly in the ODI format picking 395 wickets and scoring over 8000 runs at a strike rate of 117. For now enjoy his ‘fastish spin’ prowess:

Watch: Shahid Afridi bowls fastest delivery by a spinner:

https://youtu.be/6cmpMnqnrz8