Mark Wood: His fastest ball, wicket statistics and more about the North East based Ashes star

After a tough start to the first day of the third Ashes test against Australia in Leeds, English cricket fans might have thought the series was over weeks before the final test, but thanks to a local lad the hosts are back in with a chance of picking up a test victory this match.

Mark Wood’s five wickets on Thursday, July 6 meant Australia ended their first innings all out for 263, which confirms what we have always known – if a job needs to be done, you can always rely on the people of the North East to get it done!

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Where is Mark Wood from?

The right handed fast bowler was born in Ashington, Northumberland, and still calls the North East home for the majority of the year, having been contracted to Durham since 2011.

What is Mark Wood’s fastest ball?

In an interview with The Telegraph this month, he confirms his fastest ball was recorded at 96.5 miles per hour. When asked if he could break the 100mph speed, he claimed he would need a bit of wind behind him! This 96.5mph is recorded as 155.5 kilometres per hour.

What were the speeds of Mark Wood’s fastest over?

On the same day he caught the nation’s attention with five wickets, Wood also recorded the fastest over over at Headingley. His six ball blitz saw balls recorded at 91, 93, 95, 93, 94 and 93mph in his first over, officially the quickest over to be bowled at the Leeds ground. If that wasn’t impressive enough, it was his first over of the innings.

He followed that with a ball of 96.5mph in his next over.

How many wickets has Mark Wood got?

At the time of writing, Wood has 90 test wickets, 71 ODI wickets, 226 first class wickets and 115 list A wickets.

This is an overall total of 502 career wickets.