Watch: Shoaib Akhtar gives a glimpse of how it feels to face a 100mph delivery

Former Pakistan fast bowler Shoaib Akhtar is touted as the fastest bowler ever in the history of cricket. Known as the ‘Rawalpindi Express’ Akhtar is an inspiration for several budding fast bowlers all around the world. During his playing days, Akhtar gave numerous batters sleepless nights as he hit them with his searing pace. In a recent video uploaded on his Twitter handle, the 47-year-old gave a glimpse of how it feels as a batter while facing a delivery at 100mph.

In the video, Akhtar is seen with an operator of a bowling machine and asks him to increase the bowling speed to 100 miles per hour(160.9 Kmph) to showcase the viewers how it feels like batting to such high-paced deliveries. After the balls whiz past the stumps at fiery speeds, Akhtar boasts of having bowled at 161.3 Kmph in international cricket and asks a bystander to find about it. “Tap to see what happens when the speed gets to 100,” Akhtar captioned the video.

Watch the video here:

Tap to see what happens when the speed gets to 100#RawalpindiExpress pic.twitter.com/r7EVfjd1JP

— Shoaib Akhtar (@shoaib100mph) January 19, 2023

Akhtar holds the record of having bowled the fastest ball ever in cricket history. He bowled a 161.3 Kmph(100.2 miles per hour) delivery to England opener Nick Knight in an ODI during the 2003 Cricket World Cup at Cape Town in South Africa. It was the last ball of his maiden over, having rattled the England batter with speeds of 153.3 kmph, 158.4kmph, 158.5kmph, 157.4kmph and 159.5kmph in his first five balls.

Shoaib Akhtar picked 444 wickets in his career

During his playing days, there was a huge competition between Australia’s Brett Lee and Akhtar on who would break the 100mph barrier first while bowling and it was Akhtar who achieved the landmark first. Lee’s fastest ball in his career stood at 160.8 kmph (99.9 mph) which he bowled against New Zealand in 2005.

In his international career, Akhtar took 444 wickets out of which 178 came in Test cricket and 247 were taken in ODIs.

With the emergence of Indian fast bowler Umran Malik in international cricket, fans are expecting Umran to break Akhtar’s record of the fastest ball soon as he has already bowled the fastest ball by an Indian of 156kph.