(Reuters) – England bowler Mark Wood said he can still bowl faster after clocking speeds of 154 km per hour in their five-wicket victory over Afghanistan at the Twenty20 World Cup.
Wood bowled the fastest spell in T20 World Cup history against Afghanistan on Saturday, averaging 149kph as he dismissed opener Rahmanullah Gurbaz and captain Mohammad Nabi to end with figures of 2-23.
Pakistan’s Shoaib Akhtar and Australians Shaun Tait and Brett Lee are the only bowlers to have surpassed the 100 miles per hour (160.9 kph) mark.
“I don’t think I’m in their bracket,” Wood told reporters.
“Though I’ve got more consistently high pace than them. I feel in a great place at the minute so hopefully I can keep that going,” added Wood, who returned from an elbow injury in last month’s series against Pakistan.
“I actually feel I have more in the tank than that. I struggled in my first couple of overs because I was slipping quite a bit. There was a lot of grass on the wicket and it was a bit tacky on top so I was sliding.
“The record is great to hear but I want to keep pushing the boundaries to get quicker and quicker.”
England next face Ireland on Wednesday.
(Reporting by Aadi Nair in Bengaluru; Editing by Peter Rutherford)
