It's always been true that tall fast bowlers who get an easy life on quick, bouncy pitches find their fiercest short balls merely sit up and ask to be hit on slow and low pitches... and that at times, bowling faster actually makes life easier for the batsman by giving the batsman more pace to work with... hence Malcolm Marshall's long spells of bowling medium pace off-cutters to HUGE effect on sub-continental wickets.

To my mind the "pace" issue is irrelevent in all forms of cricket EXCEPT when bowling to tail-enders: what gets top batsman is guile - well disguised variations especially with lines that change in the air and off the pitch, will work anywhere... and it doesn't matter that much whether you bowl at Cairns' pace or Akhtar's pace so long as you can get batsmen confused about the line, length and pace of the delivery!