Mitchell Starc : The pace machine

Kingsmead, Durban, March 2, 2018 : South African faces are forlorn. Aussies are chuffed and why wouldn't they be? They look set to win this first test barring a miracle from Proteas. They took a lead of 189 runs on a track which is already getting tougher to bat on.

Australia sit in this comfortable position because of one man: The pace machine, the kryptonite to the tailenders, arguably the best fast bowler in the world right now: Mitchell Starc.
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South Africa are 158-6 with De Kock cleaned up by a beauty from GOAT (Lyon, in case you don't know how his teammates address him). Philander has come out to bat with AB looking as breezy as ever. South Africa are 193 runs behind and still hopeful to restrict the deficit to a minimum. They are aware that last three wickets of Aussies managed 100 runs to give them a respectable total of 351. Philander certainly is no mug with the bat and 7 fifties in test cricket reflect that. With Maharaj and Rabada yet to come and with useful partnerships with AB, their dream was not far off.

This will all turn out to be fantasy as Mitchell Starc is brought on to bowl with a ball which is 45 overs old. Three slips and a gully in place all licking their lips as Starcy starts on his way.

Starc to Philander: over 49.3 - A pure jaffa! Starc was going around the wicket to the right-hander and the ball angling towards philander pitched on middle, trying to crash onto leg stump. Philander, in my opinion, did what he should have done, tried to work it towards mid-wicket to grab a couple. It was a correct stroke.

Except he had no clue about the prowess of Starc with old ball when it reverses. The ball, changed its trajectory as if it was being controlled by a remote from Starc and straightened. It got a nick and Paine did the rest. Philander had not got a cat in a hell's idea how he got dismissed. He did everything right there. And yet he was walking back.
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Mitchell Starc seems to be getting better daily. He is currently 28 and at the perfect age for a fast bowler. At the right side of 30, the body of a fast bowler starts taking shape to generate enormous pace along with experience and maturity. He has already picked up 170 test wickets in 40 tests at a whopping strike rate of 49. Among all Australian bowlers with at least 150 test wickets, his strike rate is easily the best. (Johnson comes next at 51.1) Yesterday was the 9th instance of him taking 5 wickets in a test innings. His white ball stats are unparalleled. He was easily the man of the series in 2015 world cup with 23 wickets at a stunning average of 9! With the bat, he can put out a few lusty blows (like he did yesterday 35 off 25). His highest test score being 99. He is a complete cricketer, someone you would want every day of the week in your team. You will know what he will do. You can't survive it even after knowing. You know what is coming. He will do it anyway. Pure Fear. Full, fast, straight. Whether you try to hit with bat or pad, you are gone.

Starc often takes the pitch out of the equation. With the pitch assistance, he can destroy an entire tribe of cricketers. He is a fast bowling freak. 

The only silver lining when you get out to Starc in such mood is: The pain is brief. It is over as soon as it begins. And you will get sympathy from everyone as they know deep in their hearts that they couldn't have done much better either.
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Australian pace attack is a pure package. If the toe-breaker Starc doesn't get you, the inexhaustible Josh Hazlewood will. If they both don't, then the fierce Pat Cummins will. If you manage to avoid getting bruises and survive (without hitting yourself with bat in frustration), then the GOAT will. With Ashes being won at home, where Australia are traditionally indomitable, it was easy to brush their success off to home advantage and all that. But, here in Kingsmead, they showed why they are such a good bowling side. They were relentless throughout. In post-day presentation, even the great AB said, "They seemed to know what they were doing and they executed it to perfection."

Good teams often do that.

The obsession of Aussies with pace is not new. Starting with Lillee, Thomson, Lee, Johnson, Tait and now Starc, Hazlewood, Cummins, Stanlake, Coulter-nile, Pattinson. They seem to have a whole army of fast bowlers ready to fire at word go. Jarrod Kimber has written an excellent article over it.
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Keshav Maharaj is out to bat in the middle with South Africa in deep trouble. The resistance lasts for 5 balls when Josh Hazlewood put him out of his misery. Pitched outside the off, nipping back in to hit the top of offstump. The dream wicket for any fast bowler.

Out comes Kagiso Rabada. His averages don't reflect it. But, he can be a stubborn pain the a** for the fielding side. On numerous occasions, he has frustrated the hell out of captains as a night-watchman. His dead-bat technique is often reliable. He took the single off the last ball of Hazlewood to get off the mark and retain the strike. Now, He was going to be up against Mitchell Starc. This was going to be some show.

I was cursing at home. Why in God's name will you take single off the last ball when the batting-freak is batting so well at the other end? For Christ' sake, Give that guy some brain. I was angry and cursing at Rabada. It was a no-brainer. AB should have taken as much strike as possible and try to push proteas towards 200.

Starcy bowled a half-volley outside the off-stump to Rabada and Rabada put it away towards covers for a couple. I was again cursing why did he come back for the second when there was a chance to get off the strike. Starc had set him up so beautifully. It was like a predator setting eye on a prey. I knew that a full, fast, straight delivery was coming. Shaun Pollock mentioned it on air that Rabada should be ready for a straight delivery. It was such common sense. Starc did as was expected. Full, fast, straight onto the middle-stump.

Rabada still managed to avoid hitting the ball with the bat. There was no going back from there. Umpire raised the fingers. Rabada opted to go for a review, more in hope than in expectation. He knew that he had no chance. AB knew he had no chance. Umpire knew he had no chance. Starc knew he had no chance. I, sitting at my home knew that he had no chance. Everyone in the universe knew that he had no chance. Third umpire did the rest.
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Morne Morkel was the last man out there. Starc had four balls left. Now, AB was realizing his mistake of not retaining the strike when he had the chance. The question now was : how on earth was Morne Morkel going to survive those 4 missiles by Starc? First ball he faced was a wild swing and a miss. All the ooh-aahs from the Aussies slip-cordon followed. Next ball, Starcy cleaned him up with another beauty. The ball pitched on leg-stump and first hit the pads before crashing onto stumps. AB was left stranded on 71. South Africa had lost their last 5 wickets for 12 runs, while Australian 8,9,10 milked more than 100 runs. Tells you about the difference Starc makes on a cricket field. This was high-class fast bowling at his best. (Not to forget the contribution of GOAT when he got 2 wickets in his first over)
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For South Africa, this should be an eye-opener of what is about to follow for the next 3 weeks. If they were thinking of their first home test series win against Australia, they better think again. This young, confident Australian team looks so hard to stop. Let's all wait and watch what unfolds further.

My obsession with pace bowling

Years ago, I started watching a game called "Cricket". Nothing hooked me more with this game than the madness of "fast bowling". Every time I close my eyes and try to imagine a cricketer I would have loved to become like, these guys come to mind:
Shoaib Akhtar, Brett Lee, Mitchell Johnson, Shaun Tait, Dale Steyn, Shane Bond, Dennis Lilee, Jeff Thomson, Mitchell Starc, Pat Cummins.

There is a hidden implied "f*ck you" when someone beats you for pace in cricket. It is like the cricketing equivalent of Boxing. Going head to head, knocking the guy out with a straight punch on his jaws. No technique, no bullsh*t. Just raw, plain butchery. Sure, Cricket is a game of skills bla, bla, bla. You have got to swing the ball, then put it in right areas, try to gain reverse swing as the ball gets old, bowl according to your field and all that. But, everything is irrelevant if you can bowl so fast that you are able to get inside the reaction time of the batsman and then grab him by his throat, punch him in the face, kick the stumps and then come back almost innocently.

Every time a batsman gets out to a delivery, he starts to think about the mistake he made. Perhaps I should have let it go, perhaps I should have been more aggressive, perhaps I should have played that with a straighter bat and soft hands, maybe the umpire made a mistake and all that. There is always a scope of improvement every time you get out. You promise yourself to do things differently the next time. You promise to do more nets, you promise to cure that weakness of your game. You intend to fulfill those promises.

But, if you get cleaned up by extra quick pace, something which was beyond your control, some missile fired at you so fast that you barely saw it coming and your stumps were shattered or pads were hit before you even could react to it, there is not much you can do. It will just create enormous self-doubt in your head and you will never remain the same afterwards. The fact that playing that fast ball will always be beyond your reach, makes you question yourself as a batsman on a very fundamental level. It questions the very essence of you as a human being. In cricket, there is no bigger joy than watching your opposition give up before they have even fought. Enormous speed does that. Going inside the reaction time of someone and then beating the shit out of a batsman is simply surreal. Those are the moments you grow up for.

As a batsman, you are never in control while playing ultra-fast bowling. Already you are worried about your wife, your parents, your friends, your career, your runs and so on. With extra-fast bowling, now you have got to worry about your health too. Some fast bowlers could be really mean. They secretly think like, "No. I am not going to get you out. You will beg me to get you out. You will beg the umpire to not give a wide or no ball while I am bowling. Be scared. Be very scared." Sometimes they are f*cking psychos. They don't give a sh*t about cricket. They just want to break your jaw. They just want to watch you bleed.

While batting, You can never take the safety of your body for granted. You have got to have a healthy respect for your limbs. Body is a cruel mistress. It can't stand over the tremendous impulse generated by a cricket ball fired at a high velocity. It will break down. Brain is protected by helmets in cricket, heart isn't. You need both to live.

Bowling fast, though appreciated by everyone, can be as difficult to achieve. So many try, so few succeed. It is not natural for a human being to throw some round object over his shoulders with 95 miles an hour. Even biologically, human genes are thought to have an upper limit of around 100 MPH. To achieve this limit is to stand up on the face of God itself and laugh over it. Bowling fast requires tremendous sacrifice. You have to put your whole body on line, not worry about your limbs. Bowling fast requires a touch of madness. Why put yourself through so much pain? As a human being, the general tendency is to run away from the pain, not walk towards it.

Because bowling fast is not just about the numbers. It is about sheer joy in knowing that you are among few elite people to have walked across this God's green earth who can throw a ball stupendously fast. Bowling fast is something much much bigger than ourselves. The hidden beauty in bowling fast is impossible to describe. It is so extraordinarily beautiful. The madness involved, the applause earned because of going off the charts of speedometer. None is looking at the batsman or the runs. Every eye is on electronic scoreboard. Everyone is excited to see what reading of speed of last ball is about to display. Batsman is not playing the ball. He is living a nightmare out of it. No human being is able to forget a ball which intends to kill you at 100mph. Cricket ball doesn't get faster than that. It is the human body limit. We are here to fight ourselves to break the biological barrier. Human hands are weak. I mean, ridiculously weak. Our biology doesn't support us throwing a small piece of rock with supersonic velocity or something like that. The connective tissues aren't strong enough to provide ample thrust for that. We are limited by the very essence of being a human being.

But, Just because Evolution made our bodies so fragile and weak is no reason to give up. This is what makes us humans too. We overcame every challenge nature ever threw at us till now. Every limitation is always only in our heads. Bowling fast without any boundaries is one way to challenge the supernatural. The most perfect way. If you really want to do something, the sky is the limit.

Coming back to my personal opinions, I have always loved speed. Reading, writing, typing, walking, running, speaking, you name it. It saves a lot of time. Just get to the point. But, sadly I was never gifted enough for being an express quick bowler. I have always hated a part of me because of this. In high school or college, when many guys used to bowl faster than I did, I have felt depressed and lonely. I would have exchanged my academic skills in a blink for that express pace. I used to try harder and harder to get that sort of pace, which makes the batsman piss themselves. I just wasn't never good enough. My action resembled to that of James Anderson. The front-arm action which didn't help the cause either. I watched so many tutorials, read books on fast bowling, imagined myself bowling quick. All of that to make myself faster, someone who can get you out without needing assistance from pitch, fielders or the umpires.

Constant injuries didn't help me either. Since I was tiny, I have been cursed in picking up injuries. I have always seemed to attract them like a magnet. In this short life, they have pushed my body a lot further. I broke my hands, my fingers and so many other organs in order to acquire pace. I have slept in a state of full body-pain on most nights. So many pain-killers. Just to achieve one life-long goal: Fast bowling. I always wanted to be the quickest someone ever faced. It just wasn't meant to be.

Very recently, I was watching a tutorial on bowling with side-arm action. Though it is recommended for more pace, It becomes really difficult to control the line. Also, the way you land while bowling side-arm is a tricky issue. I have tried it a lot. My left knee and right sheen have almost given up. They hurt and I really mean it. It is difficult to even walk straight without hobbling.

Anyway, personal things aside, speed is a lovely mistress to have. It saves the most important resource of your life: your time.

Just bowl fast and knock them over. Good Luck!