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Your choice– best playing XI from a match

Arjun

Cricketer Of The Year
While there are so many 'ideal' selections by fans for their (or any) team, there have often been real selections which looked good (or ideal), and more importantly, worked. What is your choice, for the best playing XI from a match, for any team?

For South Africa, this team for a Test series against the Kiwis in NZ in the late 90's looked good:
  • Kirsten
  • Gibbs
  • Kallis (RMF)
  • Cullinan
  • Cronje (C)
  • Rhodes
  • Klusener (RFM)
  • Pollock (RFM)
  • Boucher (WK)
  • Adams (SLA)
  • Donald (RF)
 
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Goughy

Hall of Fame Member
Boucher at 9 shows a long batting line-up but could you not find a team without Adams?
 

silentstriker

The Wheel is Forever
Arjun said:
While there are so many 'ideal' selections by fans for their (or any) team, there have often been real selections which looked good (or ideal), and more importantly, worked. What is your choice, for the best playing XI from a match, for any team?

For South Africa, this team for a Test series against the Kiwis in NZ in the late 90's looked good:
  • Kirsten
  • Gibbs
  • Kallis (RMF)
  • Cullinan
  • Cronje (C)
  • Rhodes
  • Klusener (RFM)
  • Pollock (RFM)
  • Boucher (WK)
  • Adams (SLA)
  • Donald (RF)

India v West Indies (first two test matches) XI:

Sehwag
Gayle
Dravid
Lara
Chanderpaul/Sarwan/Yuvraj (can't decide!)
Bravo
Dhoni (+)
Kumble
Collins
Edwards
Colleymore


Dravid or Lara can be captain, I'm not sure which. I'm suprised by seven WI and four Indians (assuming Sarwan/Chander play). I thought there'd be more Indians in the match.
 

Arjun

Cricketer Of The Year
Here's another combination. Pakistan had just the right team, but they blew it against England in Cape Town in the 2003 World Cup. Chasing 246, they were all out for 134.
  • Saeed Anwar
  • Shahid Afridi (LBG)
  • Inzamam
  • Yousuf Youhana
  • Younis Khan
  • Abdul Razzaq (RMF)
  • Rashid Latif (WK)
  • Wasim Akram (LF)
  • Saqlain (OB)
  • Waqar Younis (RF)
  • Shoaib Akhtar (guess?)
 

Arjun

Cricketer Of The Year
silentstriker said:
India v West Indies (first two test matches) XI:

Sehwag
Gayle
Dravid
Lara
Chanderpaul/Sarwan/Yuvraj (can't decide!)
Bravo
Dhoni (+)
Kumble
Collins
Edwards
Colleymore


Dravid or Lara can be captain, I'm not sure which. I'm suprised by seven WI and four Indians (assuming Sarwan/Chander play). I thought there'd be more Indians in the match.
Good try, but we're looking at combinations that actually played, for any team.
Goughy said:
could you not find a team without Adams?
Adams was a freak bowler, and better than Boje, having bowled better against India. I was looking for teams with Klusener, Pollock, Kallis and Donald, but countless times Adam Bacher appeared in the XI.
 

Goughy

Hall of Fame Member
Arjun said:
Good try, but we're looking at combinations that actually played, for any team.Adams was a freak bowler, and better than Boje, having bowled better against India. I was looking for teams with Klusener, Pollock, Kallis and Donald, but countless times Adam Bacher appeared in the XI.
Well Ive just been trying to do the SA side I think I may agree with your selection. Bacher seems to feature far too often and the team you chose also destroyed England by an Innings and some at Jo'burg in 99.
 

NZTailender

I can't believe I ate the whole thing
Arjun said:
Good try, but we're looking at combinations that actually played, for any team.

When I saw this thread, the first thing that came to mind was an XI made up from the players of both teams in the match. Perhaps we can do that as well? Like, classic matches etc...
 

luckyeddie

Cricket Web Staff Member
I think I win the Internets on this one.

BA Richards
EJ Barlow
RB Kanhai
RG Pollock
CH Lloyd
*GS Sobers
+FM Engineer
Intikhab Alam
MJ Procter
GD McKenzie
LR Gibbs

I saw the above side play.
 

wpdavid

Hall of Fame Member
luckyeddie said:
I think I win the Internets on this one.

BA Richards
EJ Barlow
RB Kanhai
RG Pollock
CH Lloyd
*GS Sobers
+FM Engineer
Intikhab Alam
MJ Procter
GD McKenzie
LR Gibbs

I saw the above side play.
ROW in 1970? It's a spectacularly good lineup and, unlike the socalled supertests last year, this XI actually showed up.
 

luckyeddie

Cricket Web Staff Member
wpdavid said:
ROW in 1970? It's a spectacularly good lineup and, unlike the socalled supertests last year, this XI actually showed up.
Indeed.

It was the line-up for the first test, I think.

Later, Deryck Murray took the gloves and Peter Pollock came in to replace Garth, but any one of the line-ups would probably constitute the best side to play cricket in my lifetime.
 

wpdavid

Hall of Fame Member
luckyeddie said:
Indeed.

It was the line-up for the first test, I think.

Later, Deryck Murray took the gloves and Peter Pollock came in to replace Garth, but any one of the line-ups would probably constitute the best side to play cricket in my lifetime.
How good was McKenzie? I've always rated him a class below the generation that emerged in the 70's, but I don't really know a lot about him tbh.
 

luckyeddie

Cricket Web Staff Member
wpdavid said:
How good was McKenzie? I've always rated him a class below the generation that emerged in the 70's, but I don't really know a lot about him tbh.
I suspect your appraisal wasn't far off the mark - he was the veritable Curate's Egg - good in parts.

Once bowled a 23 ball over.
 

Jungle Jumbo

International Vice-Captain
That Pakistan side does look interesting Arjun. Mind you, they blew it big time on the night.

Liked some of the Asian sides:

Sri Lanka, World Cup Final, 1996

ST Jayasuriya (SLA)
+RS Kaluwitharana
AP Gurushina
PA de Silva (OB)
*A Ranatunga
HP Tillekaratne
RS Mahanama
HDPK Dharmasena (OB)
WUPJC Vaas (LMF)
GP Wickremasinghe (RMF)
M Muralitharan (OB)

Oh, and this side of course:

Dhaka, 2005-06

Javed Omar
Rashidul Haque
Al Sahariar
Mehrab Hossain jnr (SLA)
*Mohammad Ashraful (LB)
Sanwar Hossain
Khaled Mahmud (RM)
Mohammad Rafique (SLA)
+Anwar Hossain
Shahadat Hossain (RFM)
Talha Jubair (RMF)
 

Autobahn

State 12th Man
*GA Gooch
IT Botham
RA Smith
GA Hick
NH Fairbrother
+AJ Stewart
CC Lewis
DR Pringle
DA Reeve
PAJ DeFreitas
RK Illingworth

Jammy to the nth degree i'll grant you, but it got them all the way to the final.
 

wpdavid

Hall of Fame Member
Autobahn said:
*GA Gooch
IT Botham
RA Smith
GA Hick
NH Fairbrother
+AJ Stewart
CC Lewis
DR Pringle
DA Reeve
PAJ DeFreitas
RK Illingworth

Jammy to the nth degree i'll grant you, but it got them all the way to the final.
Jammy? Still looks like England's best ever oneday side to me.
 

Arjun

Cricketer Of The Year
Two New Zealand ODI sides make it here. Here's a team picked for that ODI series against India in 2002-03, which made the match on 5th January. A pity Cairns didn't get a bowl.
  • Fleming (C)
  • Astle
  • Cairns (RMF)
  • Sinclair
  • Styris (RM)
  • McMillan
  • Harris (???)
  • Adams (RMF)
  • Vettori (SLA)
  • Bond (RF)
  • Tuffey (RMF)
Here's another team, which successfully cahsed 331 against Australia. A pity Bond didn't play. But, does he ever?
  • Vincent
  • Fleming(C)
  • Astle
  • Hamish Marshall
  • Styris (RM)
  • McMillan
  • Cairns (RMF)
  • Oram (RM)
  • McCullum (WK)
  • Vettori (SLA)
  • Mills (RM)
 

FaaipDeOiad

Hall of Fame Member
I was going to go for an Australian team that had a McGrath/Gillespie/Lee/Warne attack, and Hayden/Langer/Ponting/Martyn/S.Waugh/Lehmann/Gilchrist for the batting. Interestingly, this side never played together, as the only time that exact batting lineup existed was during Warne's one year ban.

So, with that in mind, it'd have to be the Australian team from the 01/02 series against South Africa.

Langer
Hayden
Ponting
M. Waugh
S. Waugh
Martyn
Gilchrist
Warne
Lee
Gillespie
McGrath

I think Lehmann, at least on ability, was a marginally better batsman than Mark Waugh, but that's the only possibly change to that lineup in my view. Obviously Lee wasn't as good then as he is now, McGrath wasn't on top form during that series and so on, but as a straight-out list of players it is phenomenally good, and stands up decently against any team, ever.
 

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