So many quality bowlers in one test match

[Slifer]

I don't know about that. How good was Imran in 1990 as a bowler? I don't think he was bowling much at that time. Quadir was probably past his peak as well.

As for Australia versus West Indies you do have McGrath and Warne who some would argue are slightly better than Marshall and Ambrose and certainly provide more variety. Overall man for man I think the 90 attack may been slightly better but the 95 attacks are better balanced and would probably work a bit better as attacks.

Respect ur opinion and all but Ambrose and Marshall>Warne and Mcgrath. Whichever way u put it, Mcgrath is cancelled out by either fastbowler from the WI but either WI bowler is better than Warne (ie more effective in general).

 

[Sanz]

Ambrose, Marshal, Bishop, Walsh, Wasim, Waqar, Imran, Qadir

Thats 8 world class bowlers in one game sure Immz, Marshal and Qadir were on a decline but still thats some serious quality unfortunatley Mushtaq was injured for this game or it would have been 9 quality bowlers.

Cricinfo - 3rd Test: Pakistan v West Indies at Lahore, Dec 6-11, 1990

With all due respect, Imran, Qadir were not world class around that time.

 

[oitoitoi]

Respect ur opinion and all but Ambrose and Marshall>Warne and Mcgrath. Whichever way u put it, Mcgrath is cancelled out by either fastbowler from the WI but either WI bowler is better than Warne (ie more effective in general).

AWTA, both Ambrose and Marshall were > than Mcgrath, I'd take Marshall over Warne any day regardless of conditions, probably Ambrose too now I think about it.

 

[oitoitoi]

There were also some great bowlers on display in the 1954/55 Ashes

Tyson
Statham
Bedser
Wardle
Appleyard
Bailey

Lindwall
Davidson
Miller
Johnston (x2)
Benaud

They chopped and changed a bit though, and I'm not sure which match featured the best attacks.

IMO that was the last great English side, very complete, probably the highest standard of cricket in the Ashes rivalry looking at that Australian side. Must have been some damn good viewing, Courcy and Hole the only 2 players not of a good test quality.

 

[Don Bradman]

In fact Hooper was the second best spinner the WIndies ever produced and he was there too.

116 wickets @ 49.42.

Gibbs, Ramadhin, Valentine, Deonarine, Harper and even Chris Gayle is better than him.

 

[The Sean]

IMO that was the last great English side, very complete, probably the highest standard of cricket in the Ashes rivalry looking at that Australian side. Must have been some damn good viewing, Courcy and Hole the only 2 players not of a good test quality.

Some wonderful names there, but to be fair that Australian side wsn't nearly as good as it looked on paper. Both Lindwall and Miller were hampered by injuries at the time and neither were at their best, Johnston was still good but not quite as effective as he'd been in the early 50s, while neither Davo nor Benaud were anywhere close to the bowlers they would be a few years later.

 

[Dissector]

Respect ur opinion and all but Ambrose and Marshall>Warne and Mcgrath. Whichever way u put it, Mcgrath is cancelled out by either fastbowler from the WI but either WI bowler is better than Warne (ie more effective in general).

Well note that I didn't say that I believed that McGrath and Warne were better than Marshall and Ambrose. I would agree that man for man the West Indies pair was better but you could at least argue that McGrath and Warne were as good or slightly better as a unit.

Anyway looking at the record it's clear that Qadir was way over the hill in 1990; he averaged 47 in that year and the year before. Imran barely bowled at all and just took 8 wickets in 6 matches that year. So I would say the 1995 Pakistan attack was easily better than the 1990 one and the margin was greater than the margin of the 1990 Windies attack over the 1995 Australian attack.

 

[bagapath]

And Marshall, Ambrose, Walsh and Bishop were also four of the WIndies all time greats.

In fact Hooper was the second best spinner the WIndies ever produced and he was there too.

EDIT: Still, for the Pakistanis I'd have all four of those in their all time bowling squad with Imran, Wasim and Waqar being walk up starts every game. Qadir potentially dropped on fast bowler wickets for someone like Akhtar.

you are kidding, right? hooper was a crap bowler. even viv richards was a better (albeit in ODIs) bowler than him. roger harper wasnt too bad either though he didnt have a full career.

among real bowlers, gary sobers was good spinner. should be ranked at no 4. below lance gibbs at the top. and at no.2 and no.3 should be definitely sonny ramadhin and alf valentine.

 

[Dissector]

I wonder if Stephen thinks Paul Harris is the best spinner produced by South Africa.

 

[Richard]

Hooper was a pretty decent spinner on a turning pitch TBH, and didn't do as well at Test level as perhaps he should.

Obviously, the notion of him being better than Gibbs, Valentine, Sobers and Ramnarine (I'm presuming Ramadhin is considered the #1) is absurd but he wasn't bad.

Then that's not to forget that Rangy Nanan, Neil McGarrell and probably several others were rather good as well and never got a fair crack of the whip - as didn't Ramnarine.

BTW I've invested many hours trying to find these games where there were two top-notch attacks. It's already been noted but in 1990/91 Wasim and Waqar were Pakistan's only bowlers of note - Imran barely bowled (and when he did he wasn't up to much) by that time and Abdul was pretty hopeless then too. West Indies' quartet was almost certainly their second-best ever (after Roberts-Holding-Garner-Marshall that played against India in '83). When doing this exercise, you have to consider where players in question were at at the time in their career applicable, not just how good they were at their plateau.

 

[Burgey]

5th Test 1953

Bedser
Trueman
Bailey
Lock
Laker

Lindwall
Miller
Davidson
Johnston
Archer

Pretty handy.

Wow. That's quality in bucketloads.

There were also some great bowlers on display in the 1954/55 Ashes

Tyson
Statham
Bedser
Wardle
Appleyard
Bailey

Lindwall
Davidson
Miller
Johnston (x2)
Benaud

They chopped and changed a bit though, and I'm not sure which match featured the best attacks.

Two great line ups as well.

Good gets those two mate. WD.

 

[stephen]

Hmmm my Hooper comment was incorrect. I was going purely from memory at the time, and mainly from his ODI feats, which as a bowler were much better than his test match bowling.

So I stand corrected.

Incidentally Lance Gibbs would be my pick of WI spinners.

 

[Xuhaib]

With all due respect, Imran, Qadir were not world class around that time.

I did say Imran, Qadir, Marshall were on a decline.

btw my post was mainly considering the overall quality of these bowlers rather then their effectivness at that particular time period, if we are looking for effectivness for a certain time period then England Ashes05 is one the most lethal attack in test cricket's history even though none of the five is close to being an all-time great. I thought it was very rare to see 8 all time great fast bowlers playing in the same game along with a spinner who was argubly the best spinner in the world for a decade.

 

[Xuhaib]

5th Test 1953

Bedser
Trueman
Bailey
Lock
Laker

Lindwall
Miller
Davidson
Johnston
Archer

Pretty handy.

Thats pretty solid too.

 

[Richard]

I did say Imran, Qadir, Marshall were on a decline.

Thing is they were past their best in totally different ways. Imran was barely even bowling any more, and averaging mid-30s when he did; Marshall was merely everso slightly less superlative than he had been previously (between '90 and '91 Marshall averaged 23 without taking any big wicket hauls, compared to 19 with loads of big hauls between '83 and '89 which was the plateau of his career).

 

[Dissector]

Thing is they were past their best in totally different ways. Imran was barely even bowling any more, and averaging mid-50s when he did;.

Actually no. Even in 1990 when he took just 8 wickets he was still averaging 28 with the ball.

 

[Richard]

In his last 13 Tests Imran averaged 35.28 with the ball - I was rather "out" with my initial memory. He bowled just 28 overs in the last 6 of them which came in 1990/91 (not bowling at all in 4 out of these 6).

 

[aussie]

Actually no. Even in 1990 when he took just 8 wickets he was still averaging 28 with the ball.

Imran Khan the great bowler bowling @ high pace, based on all i've read & heard. Was last seen during the the 88 tour to WI.