Best Players of a particular shot...

[SJS]

This is always a difficult one. But its fun

1. Cover Drive (front foot) : Dexter, Durrani, Graveney, Ponting
2. Cover drive(back foot) : Sobers, Tendulkar, Vijay Manjreker, Viv Richards
3. Off drive (front foot) : Zaheer Abbas, Cowdrey, Lara, Mark Waugh, Inzemaam, Viv Richards
4. Off Drive (back foot) : Sobers, Clive Lloyd.
5. Straight Drive : Viv RichardsGavaskar, Tendulkar, Hayden, Lara
6. On Drive : Laxman, Dravid, Mark Waugh, Greg Chappell
7. Square Cut: Manjrekar, Vishwanath. Dravid, Lara, Kanhai, Majid Khan, Boon,
8. Late Cut : Cowdrey, Vishwanath, Durrani
9. Flicked drive to mid wicket area (front foot) : Laxman, Mark Waugh,
10. Flicked drive to mid wicket area (back foot) Vishwanath, Tendulkar
11. Pull : Arvinda Desilva, Laxman, Dravid
12. Hook : lloyd, Richards, Sobers, practically all top West Indians and Colin Milburn.

I am sure I have left out many but so what

 

[FaaipDeOiad]

Glad someone mentioned Sobers back foot off-drive. There has never been a more perfect executer of the stroke.

 

[vic_orthdox]

The one image etched in my mind of Boon is of his square cut, with all those extra arm flailings before he made contact with the ball. Just loved watching him play short bowling in general.

 

[FaaipDeOiad]

Again, you are confusing the issue of a better player with the issue of a better strokemaker.
You are shifting the goalpost by bringing into question who is a better batsman, where the essence of the argument ( ie, who is a better strokeplayer or a player of a particular shot) is rooted in elegance and ability to play different strokes superbly to the same ball.
A strokemaker is one who is simply more fluent and complete in his strokemaking.
A better player is simply who scores more runs with various factors ( home/away/best opposition/batting support, etc. ) taken into consideration.
Steve Waugh is a better player than Mark Waugh, atleast in Tests
Steve Waugh is also a far inferior strokeplayer than Mark Waugh

Generally, wristy batsmen are more complete and better strokeplayers simply because the usage of one's wrists facilitates to play slides,glides,glances,flicks, etc. to far better precision and poise.
Tendulkar is a pretty wristy player and often he crashes the ball/turns the ball to third man area using his wrists.

The issue of strokeplay, and indeed range of strokeplay, is not confined to the wrists.

Take Martyn for example. Martyn is a wristy batsman, and uses his wrists extremely well to control his shots... better than Ponting by far. Martyn is however a far inferior strokeplayer to Ponting. He's probably more solid in defence, and he's better through the off-side, partiuclarly backward of point, but Ponting is a devastating leg-side player, and has a far larger range of effective attacking strokes than Martyn does. You could make an argument, perhaps, that Martyn is capable of playing more different sorts of shots than Ponting, but the fact is that Ponting is a relatively weak batsmen in certain areas (relative to his strengths, that is), and has built his scoring around being absolutely devastating in his strengths. Ponting has three areas where he murders just about everything that drifts remotely off line, being anything full and on his pads for his leg glance, anything which he can pull off the front foot, and anything he can drive, particularly straight and through the covers on the up. The fact that Ponting does not flick the ball off his hips or play delicate late cuts doesn't mean that he's a limited strokeplayer, it simply means that he is one who works more within his strengths, and is simply good enough in his weaker areas to stop himself from getting tied down.

And, since we are discussing the ability to play particular shots, and nobody is talking up Ponting's late cuts, it doesn't really have any impact on the debate whether or not Ponting uses his wrists. The fact that he doesn't hasn't stopped him from being a devastatingly effective strokemaker, or one of the best players of the pull shot ever seen.

 

[tooextracool]

i'd think when it comes to hook shots, Atherton was one of the best, especially when it came to safety. he always had his eye on the ball and almost always rolled his wrists(even to those that were at his nose) to make sure that it went along the ground. doesnt get much better than that IMO.

 

[open365]

Cover Drive Front foot : Trescothick
Cover Drive backfoot : Strauss
Cut Shot: Lara
Pull / Hook : Ponting
Leg glance : Sehwag
On Drive: Vaughan
Off drive: Martyn
Sweep: Lara
Slog Sweep: Pietersen
General Slog over midwicket: Brett Lee
Best footwork to spinners: Clarke,Lara
Square Drive: Sehwag
Straight sixes and lofted drives: Flintoff, symonds and Kemp
Late cut: Symonds
French cut: Vaughan

I don't think Ponting is that good at the on-drive, when i watch him he plays the leg glance most of the time.

Brett Lee's baseball hits are amazing.

Gilchrist comes clos to being the best puller

Kemp is the best Straight hitter.

 

[Natman20]

Reverse Sweep???

 

[The Baconator]

Reverse Sweep???

Andy Flower IMO

 

[Chubb]

Reverse Sweep???

Andy Flower first, daylight second. No one has ever plyed that shot better than him. I'm surprised he hasn't been mentioned until now, as far as I've seen.

 

[luckyeddie]

I'm not going to venture a whole list of names, and I'm certainly not going to discriminate between front and back foot, but I'll give you 3 names that stand out from my lifetime of watching cricket. Strangely enough, all three are from precisely the same era.

Best pull/hook - Rohan Kanhai.
Best off/cover drive - Barry Richards.
Best footwork - Graeme Pollock.

I am yet to see anyone come close in those categories

 

[luckyeddie]

Reverse Sweep???

That's not a stroke - more an abortion that survived.

 

[open365]

Reverse Sweep???

Rikki Clarke

 

[Blaze]

Whenever Fleming plays overseas and he plays a straight or on drive the commentators often say he is the most elegant exponent of the shot in world cricket.

 

[open365]

Whenever Fleming plays overseas and he plays a straight or on drive the commentators often say he is the most elegant exponent of the shot in world cricket.

i would have to agree with that,even though he never played that well against south africa,his straight dives were awesome.

 

[Jono]

Haven't read earlier posts in the thread yet but these are what I think. Mainly current players/players who have retired recently.

Cover Drive Front foot : Lara, Tendulkar, Vaughan, Atapattu
Cover Drive backfoot : Tendulkar
Defense: Kallis, Dravid
Cut Shot: Sehwag, Gilly
Pull: Ponting (Duh)
Hook: Tendulkar, always in control!
Leg glance : Laxman, M Waugh
On Drive: Tendulkar
Off drive: Lara
Sweep: Lara, Hayden
Slog Sweep: Hayden, S Waugh
General Slog over midwicket: Gilchrist
Best footwork to spinners: Lara
Square Drive: Sangakkara ATM
Straight sixes and lofted drives: Flintoff, Afridi
Late cut: Martyn

 

[Jason_M]

Cover Drive front foot: Lara and Richie Richardson.
Cover Drive back foot: Martyn
Defence: Dravid
Cut Shot: Lara
Pull/Hook: Ponting, but i love the way Gayle and other West Indians play it, that Calypso flourish.
Leg Glance: Mark Waugh
On Drive: Tendulkar
Off Drive: Tendulkar
Sweep: Hayden
Slog Sweep: Steve Waugh
General Slog over midwicket: Gilchrist
Best footwork to spinners: Lara
Square Drive: Lara
Straight sixes: Symonds
Late cut: Martyn

 

[Chubb]

Defensive play (that I've seen, didn't see Boycott really) Mark Richardson

 

[thierry henry]

Pull/Hook: Ponting, but i love the way Gayle and other West Indians play it, that Calypso flourish.

Gayle? From what I've seen he hardly ever even hits the ball into the legside. Doesn't really like to get behind it.

 

[aussie]

Slog sweep for me has to be Steve Waugh he played that shot close to perfection & the late cut its definately Lara...

 

[Barney Rubble]

Forward defence: Dravid
Backward defence: Kallis
Late cut: Dravid
Square cut: Jayasuriya
Back-foot cover drive: Lara
Front-foot cover drive: Vaughan
Lofted front-foot cover drive: Tendulkar
Straight drive: Tendulkar
Lofted straight drive: Symonds
On-drive: Laxman
General slog over mid-wicket: Afridi
Leg glance: Laxman
Sweep: Hayden
Reverse Sweep: A Flower
Slog Sweep: Trescothick
Ramp: Trescothick
Pull/Hook: Ponting
Footwork: Lara
Never-before-seen baseball-style smash down the ground off Brett Lee at 95mph: Pietersen