ISLAMABAD
Former Australian Skipper Ricky Ponting has termed Pakistan’s legendary pacer Shoaib Akhtar’s spell of the 1999 Perth Test, as the fastest one of his illustrious career. “Got plenty of questions the other day after calling the Flintoff over the best I’d faced. This from @shoaib100mph was the fastest spell I’d ever faced and trust me Justin Langer wasn’t backing up too far at the other end (sic),” Ponting tweeted with a short clip from that over as quoted by asiannetnews. Despite this fastest spell, Ponting, batting at No. 6, scored a superb 197 in that Test and Australia won by an innings and 20 runs. Justin Langer made 144 in the same match. Akhtar took only one wicket (Langer) but had hit the 150 kmph mark. In 2011, when Akhtar announced his retirement, Ponting had mentioned about this Test at the WACA ground and also had said Akhtar was the fastest bowler he faced in international cricket. Ponting had said, “I had some great duels with Shoaib over the years. To this day, I’ve always said he’s the fastest bowler that I’ve ever faced in international cricket. There’s one spell that everyone can watch on the internet of him bowling to me at the WACA. That was reasonably entertaining – more so for Justin Langer, who was at the other end laughing at me all the time when I was trying to keep Shoaib’s deliveries out. “He was express pace, a very, very good bowler. Over the years he’s had his fair share of injuries that have not allowed him to play as much as he would have liked. But even in this tournament so far, you can see that he’s still got it with the new ball.—APP
