Shoaib Akhtar’s 161.3 km/h ball—and the separate Test record
Shoaib Akhtar holds the Guinness-listed speed benchmark at 161.3 km/h. Mitchell Starc has its Test record, with measurement caveats.
Guinness World Records lists Shoaib Akhtar’s 161.3 km/h delivery—about 100.2 mph—as the fastest electronically measured ball bowled in men’s cricket. He bowled it for Pakistan against England on 22 February 2003 at Newlands, Cape Town, during the World Cup. It was an ODI delivery, not a Test delivery. Guinness’s overall record entry gives the speed, date and venue.
For Test cricket, the separate Guinness-listed record belongs to Mitchell Starc: 160.4 km/h against New Zealand at Perth on 15 November 2015. Both records describe a single measured delivery, not a bowler’s average pace.
World benchmark versus Test record
| Record category | Bowler | Recorded speed | Match and venue | Delivery date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Men’s overall Guinness-listed benchmark, delivered in an ODI | Shoaib Akhtar, Pakistan | 161.3 km/h / about 100.2 mph | Pakistan v England, World Cup, Newlands | 22 February 2003 |
| Guinness-listed Test record | Mitchell Starc, Australia | 160.4 km/h / about 99.7 mph | Australia v New Zealand, WACA, Perth | 15 November 2015 |
Sources: Guinness’s overall record entry and Test record entry, as listed on 7 October 2026.
Akhtar’s record ball was the last delivery of his second over, bowled to Nick Knight, and completed a maiden. Sky Sports statistician Benedict Bermange’s account confirms the speed, batter and position within the over.
Starc’s delivery was a yorker defended by Ross Taylor, the fourth ball of Starc’s 21st over. Taylor went on to score 290. Guinness’s Test entry records both the delivery and Taylor’s score.
How certain are the speed records?
“Fastest recorded” is more defensible than “fastest ever”. Guinness’s Akhtar entry includes a contemporary statement from the World Cup communications director that the ICC considered speed guns insufficiently uniform worldwide to designate one performance official. Guinness recognition should therefore not be confused with an ICC-certified, uniformly measured speed leaderboard. The qualification appears alongside the record itself.
Starc’s reading was also questioned at the time. New Zealand batting coach Craig McMillan suggested a technical problem, saying the ball looked similar to deliveries nearer 150 km/h. That was a challenge to the measurement, not proof that it was wrong; Guinness still lists 160.4 km/h as its Test record. RNZ’s contemporary report documents the dispute.
The practical limit is clear: these are recorded peaks. They do not establish who sustained the highest pace across a spell or career, nor provide a secure ranking against bowlers without comparable measurements.
Speed is not bowling strike rate
Starc’s first-innings figures in that Perth Test were 4/119 from 37 overs, while New Zealand made 624 and the match was drawn. The match scorecard supplies the numbers behind a useful distinction:
- Delivery speed: 160.4 km/h for the record ball.
- Bowling average for that innings: 119 ÷ 4 = 29.75 runs conceded per wicket.
- Bowling strike rate for that innings: 37 × 6 ÷ 4 = 55.5 legal balls per wicket.
The first measures pace; the second measures wicket cost; the third measures wicket-taking frequency. None can substitute for the others. For a broader performance comparison, our stats-led ranking of Test bowlers considers wickets, average, strike rate, longevity and era rather than one speed-gun peak.