Fastest Ball in IPL 2024: Why Gerald Coetzee's 157.4kmph Delivery Failed To Make The List?

Many believed Mumbai Indians pacer Gerald Coetzee had bowled the fastest ball in IPL 2024 and the second quickest in Indian Premier League history when the South African speedster clocked 157.4kmph against Rajasthan Royals on Monday (April 1).

Coetzee bowled a bouncer at Riyan Parag, who top edged it for a boundary, resulting in the victory for Royals. However, many fans had observed that the South African quick had surpassed Mayank Yadav's speed of 155.8kmph to become the fastest bowler this season.

A day later, in the list shown by IPL, the South African pacer's name appeared third in the list, creating confusion among some fans as the graphic also showed Coetzee had bowled at 152.3kmph against Kings, who MI are yet to play this season.

That 152.3kmph reading of Coetzee is correct, but that was recorded in the match against Sunrisers Hyderabad. This was an error in the IPL graphic shown during the broadcast.

Mayank Yadav has been bowling some thunderbolts this season, clocking over 150kmph in 17 of 48 deliveries. The Lucknow Super Giants pacer broke his own record on Tuesday (April 2) when he bowled at 156.7kmph against Royal Challengers Bengaluru.

Even that seemed to be short of Coetzee's speed of 157.4kmph which if counted would have been the second quickest delivery in IPL history, just shy of Shaun Tait's 157.7kmph, which happens to be the fastest ever ball recorded in the lucrative league.

Many would have thought Coetzee was close to the feat. But that seems to be an April fools prank or one would say a technical glitch, a reason given by the commentators on-air and as per a report from ESPN CricInfo.

Why Coetzee's speed was not considered?

There is very good chance technology fails at times and the speedometer has often produced wrong readings. As per a report, that's the exact reason for Coetzee's delivery not being considered among the quickest in IPL.

Coetzee still has chance to showcase his pace and challenge the new speed king in cricket, Mayank Yadav, who is definitely going to hit higher speeds in the remainder of the tournament.

With 156.7kmph delivery, Mayank is the second quickest Indian bowler behind Umran Malik, who clocked 157kmph in 2022 season. The Delhi speedster also became the fourth fastest in IPL history behind Umran, Lockie Ferguson and Tait.