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Quite a few express and genuine quicks in this year's tournament, pretty much every team has at least 1 speedster and conditions are expected to assist pace and bounce (in AUS) and seam and swing (in NZ).

Analysis will be as follows. The three most important stats will be wickets, average, and economy rate. A bowler rating will be calculated as wickets/(average * econ). Due to the large difference between typical averages (eg 30ish) and typical econs (5ish), both averages and econ rates will be normalized relative to the sample median values.

Qualitatively more weight shall be given to bowlers/attacks with lower econ rates since that is ultimately more important than average in ODI cricket.

Only front line seamers who bowl at least 35 overs in the group stage of the tournament will be considered for the study. Both and individual and team results will be displayed.

So the least of front line seam candidates [bold italics designate express bowlers (150+ kph capable), bold only indicate genuine quicks (140+ kph)].

Afghanistan (Hamid Hassan, Shapoor Zadran, Dawlat Zadran, Aftab Alam, Mirwais Ashraf)

Australia (Mitchell Starc, Mitchell Johnson, Pat Cummins, Josh Hazelwood, James Faulkner)

Bangladesh (Mashrafee Mortaza, Taskin Ahmed, Al Amin Hossain, Rubel Hossain)

England (James Anderson, Stuart Broad, Steven Finn, Chris Jordan, Chris Woakes)

India (Mohammad Shami, Umesh Yadav, B Kumar, Stuart Binny, Ishant Sharma)

Ireland (Peter Chase, Craig Young, Alex Cusack, Max Sorensen, John Moony)

New Zealand (Tim Southee, Trent Boult, Adam Milne, Kyle Mills, Mitchell McGlenaghan)

Pakistan (Mohammad Irfan, Junaid Khan, Ehsan Adil, Wahab Riaz, Sohail Khan)

South Africa (Dale Steyn, Morne Morkel, Vernon Philander, Wayne Parnell, Kyle Abbot)

Sri Lanka (Lasith Malinga, Suranga Lakmal, Nuwan Kulasekara, Angelo Matthews, Dhamika Prasad, Thisera Perera)

West Indies (Kemar Roach, Jerome Taylor, Sheldon Cottrell, Jason Holder, Andre Russell, Darren Sammy)

Zimbabwe (Tendai Chatara, Tinashe Panyangara, Solomon Mire, Tawanda Mupariwa, Elton Chigumbura)

Final analysis will probably include Scotland and UAE.

Kriterion_BD wrote: Afghanistan (Hamid Hassan, Shapoor Zadran, Dawlat Zadran, Aftab Alam)

*Afghanistan (Hamid Hassan, Shapoor Zadran, Dawlat Zadran, Aftab Alam, Mirwais Ashraf, Gulbadin Naib)

It highlights the problems with Zimbabwe cricket that we haven't been able to unearth a 145kmph capable bowler.

Surely there is someone on the domestic circuit with raw fast bowling ability. They may be wayward and unthreatening, but it's hard (impossible?) to teach raw pace. You can work on accuracy.

Well Chatara did reach 89.8 mph in the BD series, and did have a spell where he was averaging about 140. However, that was just a single spell. So he is capable, but his usual pace seems to be around the 135 k mark which is fast-medium. I wasn't sure if I should classify Rubel and Broad as genuine quicks, but they've both topped 140 with enough regularity to be considered as genuine quicks, though not anywhere near express status. I expect both to clock 145 several times in this WC given the conditions which is another reason I finally decided to include them. Of course this arbitrary designation will be updated as the WC goes on.

I hope that sloandog will be a healthy poster on this thread...seems to be right up his alley, lol.

I know Olanga was genuinely quick, but who were ZIM's fastest bowlers ever? Was Streak genuinely quick ie 140+ on a regular basis? I know Blignaut send down some really quick ones but was he routinely 140+? I think Jarvis was quick at one time, at least cricinfo had him listed as 'right arm fast' but before he retired he was usually in the 130-135 range.

Any idea how quick Cuthbert and other upcoming pacers are?

grant wrote:

Kriterion_BD wrote: Afghanistan (Hamid Hassan, Shapoor Zadran, Dawlat Zadran, Aftab Alam)

*Afghanistan (Hamid Hassan, Shapoor Zadran, Dawlat Zadran, Aftab Alam, Mirwais Ashraf, Gulbadin Naib)

Forgot about Ashraf, but not sure Naib bowls enough to be considered a front line seamer. The cutoff is at least 35 overs bowled in the 6 group stage matches. So that will prevent a guy who just bowled a hot spell against a rank minnow from skewing the stats. Imagine a Nasir Hossain taking 4-25 against Scotland or a Hammy taking 5-15 against the UAE. That shouldn't count even if the opposition are stronger.

Kriterion_BD wrote:Nasir Hossain

What's he bowling these days? Medium Pace or Off Spin?

SpitfiresKent wrote:

Kriterion_BD wrote:Nasir Hossain

What's he bowling these days? Medium Pace or Off Spin?

He has always been a conditional part timer. His very first over was in ZIM back in 2011 and it was right arm medium-fast. He still bowls depending on what the conditions will suit. So I can see him bowling mediums in AUS/NZ, if he does get a bowl that is. His pace is quite decent, 78 mph (130 kph) which means his effort balls can surely get into the low 80s. Here's a clip:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y2ckRKVSqIw

When thinking of tester years players Brighton Tonderai Watambwa was very quick, as for now it's hard to mark Chatara because he never gets his speeds measured in Zim and pace off the pitch in BD wouldn't help him. I believe in Aus he can bowl 140KPH consistently, Vitori is pretty quick isn't he ??

From what I saw of Musoko he looks 140KPH and ZI thought i read some where Chimhamiwa and Nyauchi are quick ??

Yeah Vitori would be bolded had he made the squad. He bowls consistently in the high 130s early 140s from the little I have seen of him. Only seen a little of Chatara too.

I'll adjust the speed designations after the group stage of the world cup provided guys bowl at least 35 overs.

I'm still thinking how best to calculate speeds as I obviously can't watch every game. What I'll do is compare the speed readings from the broadcast to cricinfo's Hawkeye and adjust acordingly - with the broadcast speed being gospel truth. I'll either take their average speeds from each game or if possible take the median value of their 10 fastest deliveries per match to weed out slower balls.

Kriterion_BD wrote:Yeah Vitori would be bolded had he made the squad. He bowls consistently in the high 130s early 140s from the little I have seen of him. Only seen a little of Chatara too.

I'll adjust the speed designations after the group stage of the world cup provided guys bowl at least 35 overs.

I'm still thinking how best to calculate speeds as I obviously can't watch every game. What I'll do is compare the speed readings from the broadcast to cricinfo's Hawkeye and adjust acordingly - with the broadcast speed being gospel truth. I'll either take their average speeds from each game or if possible take the median value of their 10 fastest deliveries per match to weed out slower balls.

Surely we can all help capture the speeds ....

Channel 9 used to always compare the quickest balls for each match but don't seem to anymore ....