Sri Lanka U19 star Matheesha Pathirana bowled a 175 km/h delivery which set a world record
Matheesha Pathirana wrote his name into the record books during a U19 World Cup match between India and Sri Lanka.
Although Pathirana could not help the Lankans to a win, he did deliver the fastest ball in the world.
The incident took place in the fourth over of the Indian innings. Pathirana has a sling-like action, similar to Lasith Malinga, and although he didn’t have a lot of control on the delivery, the speed gun registered an astonishing 175 km/h.
This broke the record held by former Pakistan pacer Shoaib Akhtar, who once registered a speed of 161.3 km/h during a match in the 2003 World Cup.
There were some fans who questioned if a technical glitch had caused the numbers to come up but the ICC has provided no clarification of the ball from Pathirana.
It will be interesting to see if the 17-year-old produces another similar delivery in the coming fixtures, but he seems to have a bright future ahead.
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Malinga is the obvious idol for him at the moment, and the Sri Lanka captain could provide a few more pointers to the U19 star.
India cruise to win
Even while facing the pace of Pathirana, India posted a total of 297 for four from their 50 overs.
All the batsmen got a decent start with Yashasvi Jaiswal, Priyam Garg and Dhruv Jurel all notching up half-centuries.
Sri Lanka faltered in the chase and could only score 207 before losing all their wickets.
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India tried eight different bowlers in the game and three were able to pick up a pair of wickets each.
Akash Singh was the most economical with two wickets for 29 runs off his nine overs.
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