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Who is The Greatest Australian Bowler?

The Greatest Australian Bowler Is...

  • Total voters
    99
Richard

Richard

Cricket Web Staff Member
Dunno how I missed this thread...

TBH, don't think you can split Lindwall, Davidson, Lillee and McGrath from the top perch myself really. Voted Davidson here - am regretting it now really, wish I'd voted Lindwall. Both magnificent bowlers and simply don't get the credit they deserve IMO as the coverage was so much lesser in their day compared to the equally brilliant Lillee and McGrath's.
 
D

DaRick

State Vice-Captain
Hard to go past Glenn McGrath, for mine. As brilliant as Alan Davidson and Ray Lindwall were, they both bowled in times where pitches, to my knowledge, were left uncovered...which would've helped them. After all, no batsmen's 'fine' on a sticky wicket.

I feel that Dennis Lillee, world-class as he undeniably was, has been overrated somewhat by the passage of time. The main reason why I consider him inferior to McGrath was that he went relatively untested on typically (largely unhelpful to pace) subcontinental decks, whilst McGrath was. TBF, he did have to compete against a powerful Windies unit, but weren't pitches, on the whole, more conducive to seam in his day? He finished up 5.5 years before I was born, so correct me if I'm wrong.

I was sorely tempted to pick Shane Warne, but his record against India, for a variety of reasons (injury, debut matches, relative lapses in form, etc.), doesn't hold up. He is still a phenomenonal bowler and easily the best spinner, finger-or-wrist, that I've ever seen. Complimenting his natural gifts, Warne could also psyche out batsmen. So me not picking him was really harsh. Bill O'Reilly may've been better; if he was, he must've been a joy to watch. Somehow, though, I doubt that was the case.
 
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JBMAC

JBMAC

State Captain
.
Bill O'Reilly may've been better; if he was, he must've been a joy to watch. Somehow, though, I doubt that was the case. Complimenting his natural gifts, Warne could also psyche out batsmen
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Impo O'Reilly was a better bowler than Warne even though the wicket tally tells a different story.O'Reilly could also psyche out batsmen as Bradman Attested to on many occasions.
 
D

DaRick

State Vice-Captain
JBMAC said:
.

Impo O'Reilly was a better bowler than Warne even though the wicket tally tells a different story.O'Reilly could also psyche out batsmen as Bradman Attested to on many occasions.
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I've heard about this. I should've re-ordered that paragraph differently...in fact, I will now.
 
bagapath

bagapath

International Captain
I wanted to go for a bowler who was the best in the world during most of his career. While warne and mcgrath had more successful contemporaries (i am bracing for cover) for that title in ambrose and murali for most of 90s and 00s, spofforth, oreilly and lillee were the undisputed champions in their playing days. seeing oreilly (who was my first choice) and spofforth standing no chance of coming first i have gone for lillee. could have gone for any of the five mentioned above, actually.

to illustrate my point this is my list of best bowler of each decade. it is a combination of statistics, anecdotal evidence, reputation and personal bias.

00s : murali
90s: ambrose
80s: hadlee
70s: lillee
60s: gibbs
50s: truman
40s: bedser
30s: oreilly
20s: tate
00s: barnes
90s: spofforth
 
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bond21

bond21

Banned
Warne, he is a freak of nature. Noone will be able to bowl spin as well as he did again.

But as for quicks, I would pick Lillee and McGrath equally, since they were so different.

If you want the perfect fast bowler, Lillee is the man, he had absolutely everything, cutters, pace, temper, and was scary.

McGrath wasnt as quick as Lillee but is probably the most accurate bowler in history. He really slowed down in his mid 30s to only 125k, but was still accurate enough to be the best quick in the world.
 
E

Engle

State Vice-Captain
Somehow, these polls have a way of unearthing the best.
Lillee would provide leadership in the pace attack and Warne would do the same for spin.

These 2 are automatic choices on an Aussie AT XI.
 
Richard

Richard

Cricket Web Staff Member
DaRick said:
As brilliant as Alan Davidson and Ray Lindwall were, they both bowled in times where pitches, to my knowledge, were left uncovered...which would've helped them. After all, no batsmen's 'fine' on a sticky wicket.
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Lindwall did, at least for a fair proportion of his career. Not sure about Davidson, though. I think it was, what, 1954/55 or something (certainly sometime in the early-mid-1950s) that Australian pitches begun to be covered. It may well have been after Davidson's debut; it was certainly before the time he became a top-notch bowler (which was the 1958/59 tour of South Africa).

Sure our friend Sean "archie mac" Ehlers will be only too happy to be shown this thread, its original incarnation being just before his time, and he knows the answer to the question of covered pitches.
 
F

funnygirl

State Regular
Tough choice .Dennis Lillee is my personal favourite ,but Mcgrath more successful and consistent .

Well Dennis the menace is my choice :ph34r:
 
bond21

bond21

Banned
Engle said:
Somehow, these polls have a way of unearthing the best.
Lillee would provide leadership in the pace attack and Warne would do the same for spin.

These 2 are automatic choices on an Aussie AT XI.
Click to expand...
World all time XI aswell.
 
S

subshakerz

International Coach
I think one of the biggest myths is that Australia's dominance in the last decade or so is mainly due to Warne. Awesome bowler though Warne was, objectively speaking, McGrath is his better by virtually every criteria of greatness.
 
S

subshakerz

International Coach
bagapath said:
to illustrate my point this is my list of best bowler of each decade. it is a combination of statistics, anecdotal evidence, reputation and personal bias.

00s : murali
90s: ambrose
80s: hadlee
70s: lillee
60s: gibbs
50s: truman
40s: bedser
30s: oreilly
20s: tate
00s: barnes
90s: spofforth
Click to expand...
I believe Marshall was a better bowler than Hadlee in the 80s, and a case could be made for Akram being better than Ambrose in the 90s as well...
 
Ikki

Ikki

Hall of Fame Member
subshakerz said:
I think one of the biggest myths is that Australia's dominance in the last decade or so is mainly due to Warne. Awesome bowler though Warne was, objectively speaking, McGrath is his better by virtually every criteria of greatness.
Click to expand...
LOL @ every criteria.

Could be the fact that Warne does great regardless whether McGrath is there whilst McGrath becomes just good without Warne?

Also, I'll just go with McGrath's own opinion on this one ;).
 
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