A smooth acceleration in her run-up. The trademark moves far from the fold. Then you release the ball quickly. These three simple steps formed the foundation of Shabnim Ismail’s brilliant career.
Last month they made her a pioneer. A ball for Mumbai Indians in the Women’s Premier League, the equivalent of the Indian Premier League, was clocked at 132.1 mph – the fastest in women’s cricket.
Issy Wong, the 21-year-old England bowler and member of Mumbai’s touring team, watched from the dugout in Delhi. One Ismail delivery – a rejected lbw appeal – was shown repeatedly on the big screen. Wong was perplexed until she realized the feat. “I was so excited for her,” says Wong, who compared notes with Ismail on their techniques during net sessions.
England’s Lauren Filer, clocked at 76mph in last summer’s Ashes Test, was among other bowlers struck by Ismail’s speed. “These kinds of figures might not have been thought possible for a woman even ten years ago,” she says.
Fast bowling is not the same as good bowling. But for any fast bowler, the temptation to glance at the speed gun is hard to resist. “I try not to focus too much on bowling speeds,” says Filer. “But you will always be interested in how fast you bowl.”
An essential drawback is the speed race, in both men’s and women’s cricket. The pace is measured by speed weapons, but these are far from infallible.
There are two main ways to judge speed: video tracking and radar guns. These methods “are not perfect and do not always provide an accurate measure,” explains Dr Paul Felton, a lecturer in biomechanics at Nottingham Trent University who has worked with the England and Wales Cricket Board. “The differences in methods, equipment and calculation processes make their use for comparing speeds between bowlers, locations and history challenging.” Such limitations “could result in scenarios where ball speed is systematically under- or over-predicted” from game to game.
But speed weapons, however imperfect, still remain the best measure of pace. “Compared to men, there is probably a larger physical development window for female bowlers to gain speed,” Felton believes.
One advantage for women, explains Tim Olds of the University of South Australia, is using a lighter ball: the International Cricket Council requires balls to weigh 155.9-163 grams for men’s internationals and 140-151 grams for women. Another advantage could be the schedule: the absence of Test cricket should make it easier for bowlers to focus on pace. Wong believes training could become more specialized with fast bowling, for example two spells of two overs each in the nets to maintain their top pace.
Ismail, who has retired from international cricket, had three months off for the WPL. Then, at the age of 35, she bowled her record-breaking delivery.
Breaking barriers
“The four-minute mile is a brick wall, and I won’t try it again,” declared sprinter John Landy in April 1954. Landy had run the mile six times in four minutes and two seconds.
A month later, Roger Bannister ran the mile in Oxford in three minutes and 59.4 seconds. “Après moi, le deluge,” Bannister predicted. Forty-six days later, Landy beat his brick wall, running a mile in just three minutes and 57.9 seconds. It’s an example highlighted by Wong, who believes Ismail’s performance will show other female bowlers what is possible.
“There is always room to continue,” says Wong, who reached a speed of 120 km/h in the Hundred last year. “Shabs really showed us what is possible. She is fantastic at fast bowling – without characters like her there would be fewer of us coming through.”
Perhaps just as important is the growing understanding of how women can bowl fast. It was only a decade ago that professionalisation in women’s cricket began, initially in England.
“When I talk to science and medical science, I think they are still learning about female fast bowlers,” says Wong. “The playbook still needs to be written as it tries to figure out why some people bowl faster than others.”
Felton is among those committed to providing answers. He collects data on women’s bowling in collaboration with the ECB and Loughborough University. The work aims to highlight the best actions and techniques for pacing.
He has an intriguing theory that women’s pace suffers when actions are too closely aligned with those considered classic in the men’s game, such as Brett Lee or Dale Steyn. “A lot of female bowlers run in too fast,” Felton said. “This leads to technique problems associated with reduced speed when releasing the ball and the risk of injuries.” While the research is still ongoing, he thinks it is likely that “women would benefit from identifying the run-up speed at which they can best complete the bowling action within their physical control, rather than trying to run as fast as possible” .
Felton sees Ismail’s smooth technique as a potential example of what could be the most efficient form of action. Although she is 6 feet tall, below the height generally considered optimal in the men’s game, her size “may be closer to the optimal size for women to bowl fast,” Felton says. “It is probably shorter for women because of the differences in physiology, but how much shorter is unknown.”
An underestimated impact of professionalism is that cricket will attract athletes who might otherwise have had careers in other sports.
“We will see better athletes coming through the system – better coaching, a better understanding of technique and what it means to bowl fast,” says Matt Mason, the England women’s team fast bowling coach. “We are seeing a real improvement in the level of athletes we have – that certainly translates into the skills.”
He mentions 18-year-old left-armed Freya Kemp as an example. During a year working with the England management while recovering from a stress fracture, Kemp gained ten kilometers per hour and now stands at a speed of 110 km/h.
“How fast can women bowl? That question will probably not be answered for a while. We still understand a lot more about the differences between the way women and men deliver speed.”
Consistency key
Amid all the excitement, one vital question remains: is faster always better? The evidence of Ismail’s record day was a resounding “no.” While her 82mph delivery to Meg Lanning failed to score a run, Ismail’s four overs produced figures of 1-46, well below her usual standards.
“I don’t think speed is as important as it is for men,” Mason adds. “In the men’s game, when you have a bowler who is over 90 miles per hour, it really has an impact because he is so much faster.
“In the women’s game, the faster bowlers are so rare and jumping speed is not that important. So instead of being 70 miles, someone can now be 75 – and that jump isn’t so big as to cause a lot of problems for opponents.
“High skills, consistency, resilience – these are qualities we look for.”
But the faster bowlers can become, the more they can unlock new abilities. For the inswing bowlers common in women’s cricket, for example, a faster pace can make the ball appear to swing later in its path – increasing the threat to the stumps. The greater the speed, the greater the threat posed by the yorker.
While no player likes to encounter a faster pace, tailenders are particularly vulnerable. “Compared to the bottom six, it makes a huge difference,” Wong said. “It just brings a whole new element to decision-making.”
Ultimately, bowling speed will likely fall within the classic 80-90 percent rule used in most major Olympic sports, with women hitting 10-20 percent less than men. The differences between men and women in body speed and the speed of the arm when the ball is released, which determine pace, will translate into a difference of about 15 percent in bowling speed between the sexes, Olds believes. This implies that a pace of 135 km/h could be just about achievable – at least, for a friendly speed gun. Why 85mph is the next barrier for women’s bowlers to break
But for all the mystique of the fastest delivery, consistency of speed is more valuable. “It makes no sense for a fast bowler to reach 75 miles per hour at the start of a tournament and lag at around 70 miles per hour at the end of the tournament,” says Mason.
The race to defeat Ismail has begun. But there is also awareness of a broader truth. The most fearsome women’s speed runners of the new generation will not only be those who can find the fastest pace, but also those who can maintain it.