Earning a hefty Indian Premier League deal is a dream for a lot of players around the world. South Africa fast bowler Anrich Nortje is among a rare crop of players who earned a salary increment in the biggest T20 league in the world without even playing a match. Nortje, whose salary had increased by 4.5 times in IPL 2020, had bowled the fast delivery of the tournament in his debut season itself for Delhi Capitals.
Advertisement
Readers must note that Nortje was set to make his IPL debut the previous season. However, it wasn’t meant to be as he got sidelined because of a shoulder injury. Injuries are quite common for an outright pacer and Nortje is no different. In fact, quite unfortunately, Nortje will be missing ICC Cricket World Cup 2023 in India as was the case with him during the previous edition in England four years ago.
Anrich Nortje Had Bowled The Fastest Ball Of IPL 2020
Nortje bowled the fastest delivery of IPL 2020 during a league match against Rajasthan Royals in Dubai. Nortje was bowling the third over of Rajasthan’s innings. A first-ball maximum by Jos Buttler was followed by boundaries off the fourth and fifth deliveries. Nortje was constantly clicking 150 km/h in that over but Buttler was at his best as well. That being said, the pacer didn’t compromise on pace even once.
Nortje continued attacking the stumps only to get his man on the final delivery of the over. On the back of a little seam movement which was enough to deceive Buttler, the ball crashed on to the stumps after the right-handed batter missed it completely. The speed gun had calculated the speed of this particular delivery to be 156.2 km/h. In fact, all the Top Four fastest deliveries of the season were bowled by Nortje only.
Speaking to host broadcaster Star Sports Network after the match, Nortje expressed delight on dismissing Buttler. He admitted that he had no idea about the pace of the delivery. Nortje also won the Player of the Match award for his match-winning spell of 4-0-33-2. Apart from Buttler, he also dismissed batter Robin Uthappa.
“Really? No idea. Hearing it for the first time. [Jos] Buttler played them really well. Maybe I was a touch too full. Didn’t expect him to go for a six first ball. Maybe he was expecting something else off that delivery,” Nortje had told Star Sports.
Nortje, who managed to convert his first IPL season into a breakthrough one, had announced his arrival in style. He finished as the fourth-highest wicket-taker of the tournament with his 22 wickets coming at an average of 23.27 and a strike rate of 16.63.
Anrich Nortje Had Earned 4.5x Salary Hike In IPL 2020
Nortje was initially bought by Kolkata Knight Riders for his base price of INR 20 lakh during IPL 2019 auction. As mentioned earlier, he was ruled out of the tournament even before it began. The right-arm bowler had set his base price at INR 50 lakh before the next auction only to remain unsold.
With Delhi pacer Chris Woakes opting out of IPL 2020, an opportunity had opened up for Nortje. Replacing Woakes, Nortje’s salary was said to be around INR 89 lakh (as per Insidesport). Nortje’s excellent performances forced the Capitals to retain him ahead of IPL 2022 mega auction for a price of INR 6.50 crore – another substantial jump to his IPL salary.
