Kicking up a puff of dust, the leather tore through the top soil, fizzing its way past the batsman for a dot ball. But somewhere down his lengthy follow-through, Varun Aaron knew that he had done something bordering on the incredible. While the rest of his Jharkhand team-mates walked back to their fielding positions in anticipation of more action from the next delivery, the fast bowler stared long and hard at batter Niraj Patel, who smiled back in approval.
Later in the evening, Patel would be told that he had faced the fastest ball bowled by an Indian, ever.
Patel’s shouldering arm routine may not have done much to justify the feat, nor did the widish line of the ball outside off-stump from Aaron. But in front of a spectator-less Holkar Stadium in Indore during the Vijay Hazare Trophy final between Jharkhand and Gujarat — with the overshadowing cricket World Cup as the backdrop — the 21-year-old tear-away quick had kicked up more than just a puff of dust. It was a storm gathering at 153 kmph.
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