On Day 2 of the second Test between England and West Indies pacer Mark Wood delivered the quickest overs in the game’s history since the records began. The Carribean middle-order bat Kavem Hodge who made a timely ton faced quite a chunk of Wood’s thunderboults on the day. After the game, Hodge revealed he told the English pacer jokingly, “I have a wife and kids at home”
“It was brutal,” Hodge said. “It’s not every day you rock up and you face someone that’s bowling more than 90mph every single ball. There was one point, I made a joke to him, I said: ‘Hey, I have a wife and kids at home.’ But I think that made the century a lot more satisfying,” Hodge said.
While Hodge managed to deal with Wood competently Alick Athanaze with whom the centurion stitched 175 runs for the fourth wicket got hit on the helmet. “I flinched. I thought I was going to get hit before him but it didn’t happen like that. But kudos to him that he bounced back well and was able to stand his ground and push on further,” Hodge recalled.
Blistering pace
Bowling his first over of the match at Trent Bridge, Nottingham, Wood took no time to limber up as he bowled a 93.9 mph delivery first up to Windies opener Mikyle Louis. Louis was then beaten by a pacy, moving delivery at 96.1 mph by the Englishman.
Wood backed up his initial deliveries with 95.2 mph and 92.2 mph thunderbolts before topping the charts off the fifth delivery. Wood darted in a searing 96.5 mph yorker which Louis dug out for a single. He finished the over with another booming delivery at 95.2 mph (153.20) to West Indies skipper Kraigg Brathwaite with an average speed of 94.40 mph in the over.
Wood immediately overhauled his record as he delivered more heat in his second over as the speeds read: 95 mph, 93 mph, 95 mph, 96 mph, 97.1 mph and 94 mph – in his second over.
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