Test players who have singlehandedly carried their team..

[Zinzan]

Whilst many great players have to some degree over the long history of test cricket..

For me none more so than these 3......

Hadlee
Murali
and Bradman

To a lesser extent...
Border (84-88) when Aust were Struggling
Flower
Botham (80-82)

But none to the extent of the top 3 IMO.

Any obvious names i've missed??

Possibly Lara and Kallis in recent years to a lesser extent??

Note: Test cricket only

 

[_Ed_]

Agree with those, and have to bring up the name of Tatenda Taibu from Zimbabwe, captain, keeper and scoring loads of runs, deserves some recognition.

 

[Beleg]

Bradman didn't carry his team. He had some excellent excellent partners in the form of O'Riley, Ponsford, Toshak, Harvey, Grimmett etc. They weren't called Bradman's Invincible's for nothing.

Murali carried the torque of Sri-Lanka's bowling while their batting certainly had some superstars.

Richard Hadlee is the only person that springs to my mind. I cannot remember the name of a single NZ superstar from that time. [except Wright and Crowe in the dusk of his carrier] And the number of times he led from the front is truly exceptional.

 

[C_C]

Many players have carried the team or atleast one aspect of the team(batting/bowling) for large chunks of their career.
Some have done it for almost all through their career.

Lara has carried the team's batting in the last 10 years or so.
Tendy carried the team's batting till 97 or 98.....(thats 8-9 years)
Hadlee carried the team's bowling for all his life
Kapil carried the team's bowling for all his life or so.
Murali carries the team's bowling as well(though to a lesser extent than Hadlee and Kapil as he has Vaas, a good bowler).

And one cannot forget George Headley in this category.....he was probably the best example of carrying a team's batting, the batting equivalent of Kapil Dev/Richard Hadlee's bowling.
He averaged 60+ in a team where the next-best batsman didnt even average 40 or barely averaged 40.

 

[SJS]

Tatenda Taibu
George Headley

are the only ones I can think of.

 

[Steulen]

Judging from the media frenzy you'd think Freddie Flintoff fits right in

 

[Zinzan]

Judging from the media frenzy you'd think Freddie Flintoff fits right in

no he singlehandedly carries the world

 

[chaminda_00]

What about Duleep Mendis he carried the batting line at the start for Sri Lanka in Test Cricket. He did have Ranatuga and Aravinda but they weren't that effective until the end of his career.

I remember reading about H.Tayfield of South Africa who carred their bowling attack in the early days.

What about Fred Spofforth, Frank Tyson, Fred Trueman did they have any partner's in crime. They could of but i haven't read of any.

WG Grace now he carried his side didn't he

H Steak, apart from Paul Strang their hasn't been much else in the Zimbabwean bowling, maybe Eddo Brandes and Olongo, but they weren't consistent.

I guess it all depends on the classification but i think the contempory list would be:
B.Lara
A.Flower
H.Steak
M.Muralitharan
S.Tendulkar
M.Rafique

Some of these guys are miss leading as they didn't carry their teams, they were just so much better then the rest of their sides

 

[twctopcat]

From what i have seen Lara has the most psychological effect on his team, if he plays well there is something invincible about him and the WI do not lose. The same could be said for tendulkar but with Dravid and co there are many others.

 

[Jono]

From what i have seen Lara has the most psychological effect on his team, if he plays well there is something invincible about him and the WI do not lose. The same could be said for tendulkar but with Dravid and co there are many others.

Definitely until recently regarding Tendulkar. Hell that goes for fans too. I remember watching matches at some family gatherings, and whenever Tendulkar would go out everyone would pretty much give up and leave. I'd be like the only one left watching the television. Clearly the team, and now fans have more faith in the rest of the side.

Personally I have enough confidence in Sarwan, Gayle and Chanderpaul in the WI side to not give up hope and spit the dummy when WI go out (that's when I'm supporting the WI of course), but he has much more of a psychological effect when out than Sachin has at present.

 

[a massive zebra]

S.Tendulkar

If Tendulkar singlehandedly carries India then Shane Warne singlehandedly carries Australia. You fail to notice the huge difference between being good and carrying a team.

 

[honestbharani]

Definitely until recently regarding Tendulkar. Hell that goes for fans too. I remember watching matches at some family gatherings, and whenever Tendulkar would go out everyone would pretty much give up and leave. I'd be like the only one left watching the television. Clearly the team, and now fans have more faith in the rest of the side.

Personally I have enough confidence in Sarwan, Gayle and Chanderpaul in the WI side to not give up hope and spit the dummy when WI go out (that's when I'm supporting the WI of course), but he has much more of a psychological effect when out than Sachin has at present.

Yeah. Especially in tests, I think Lara has been carrying his team for a few years now. I don't think Tendulkar ever carried the Indian side, except when they played away from home betweent the years 92 to 96, that is, until Dravid came along. It is true that he was always the major player, but not to the extent that it could be said that he alone was carrying the side. The WI now have some good batters and I don't think Lara has carried them in the last year or so, but definitely for a good 6 or 7 years before that, he carried that side. Taibu is definitely doing a lot for his side at the moment.

 

[ReallyCrazy]

I think Tendulkar carried the Indian team for about 5 years by himself....this was during the period between '92 and '97. It was only after '97 that Dravid emerged as a good test player and Ganguly as someone who could offer resistance. It was only after '97 that this so called Indian trinity was formed.

 

[honestbharani]

That is what I said as well. We always had batters who did well at home, but abroad, he certainly carried our side between 92 and 96, which was when both Sourav and Rahul made their debuts and had instant success in England.

 

[a massive zebra]

WG Grace now he carried his side didn't he

For sure!!!

Check these out...

http://www.cricketarchive.com/Archive/Seasons/Seasonal_Averages/ENG/1871_f_Batting_by_Runs.html

http://www.cricketarchive.com/Archive/Seasons/Seasonal_Averages/ENG/1873_f_Batting_by_Runs.html

http://www.cricketarchive.com/Archive/Seasons/Seasonal_Averages/ENG/1876_f_Batting_by_Runs.html

 

[Swervy]

What about Duleep Mendis he carried the batting line at the start for Sri Lanka in Test Cricket. He did have Ranatuga and Aravinda but they weren't that effective until the end of his career.

Sri Lanka had much more than Duleep Mendis who was in fact just a glorified slogger..Dias was a classy player,Sidath Wettimuny certainly turned it on at lords in 84. ranatunga and De Silva didnt really make their names until a but later on

 

[Anil]

What about Duleep Mendis he carried the batting line at the start for Sri Lanka in Test Cricket. He did have Ranatuga and Aravinda but they weren't that effective until the end of his career.

did mendis and aravinda play together?? actually while mendis was playing, roy diaz was the best srilankan batsman, siddath wettimuny was another good player....

 

[tooextracool]

Definitely until recently regarding Tendulkar. Hell that goes for fans too. I remember watching matches at some family gatherings, and whenever Tendulkar would go out everyone would pretty much give up and leave. I'd be like the only one left watching the television. Clearly the team, and now fans have more faith in the rest of the side.

Personally I have enough confidence in Sarwan, Gayle and Chanderpaul in the WI side to not give up hope and spit the dummy when WI go out (that's when I'm supporting the WI of course), but he has much more of a psychological effect when out than Sachin has at present.

and you didnt have confidence in dravid, azhar, ganguly, sidhu and the like?

 

[Anil]

Sri Lanka had much more than Duleep Mendis who was in fact just a glorified slogger..Dias was a classy player,Sidath Wettimuny certainly turned it on at lords in 84. ranatunga and De Silva didnt really make their names until a but later on

oops!! didn't see your post till i submitted mine...we are talking about almost exactly the same thing...

 

[roseboy64]

George Headley is the best example in my mind.