Golden Matchups

[bagapath]

Imran who could bowl on anything

one chink in his armor was the lack of a great out swinger. he developed a good leg cutter in the later half of his career that kept him on top despite the inevitable drop in pace due to age. but his wicket taking delivery was always the one that came in to the right hander. in the chapter on viv richards in his auto biog imran himself echoes this observation. dont get me wrong. i think imran is one of the greatest fast bowlers of all-time. but i consider marshall and hadlee to be the finished products.

 

[Faisal1985]

Akram 7/10. Dhoni would do pretty well to block him or score singles, but if he tries to demolish Akram he ends up in the hands of mid-off or mid-on.

I think Akram will do great against him. Why? Because Dhoni will be troubled from the one that comes back in to the righty...and Akram had mighty control on that at good pace......

 

[Shri]

Akram would dominate Dhoni surely when the ball swings no doubt. But in the middle overs when the ball does not swing, Dhoni would just rotate the strike with singles easily and would score at about 4 an over off his bowling without taking risks. If Dhoni tries to attack him from ball one, he is a goner. If he attacks him after being well set, he has a 40% chance of being successful imo. So, Akram 6/10 in dead tracks, 9/10 in swinging conditions.

 

[subshakerz]

Akram would dominate Dhoni surely when the ball swings no doubt. But in the middle overs when the ball does not swing, Dhoni would just rotate the strike with singles easily and would score at about 4 an over off his bowling without taking risks. If Dhoni tries to attack him from ball one, he is a goner. If he attacks him after being well set, he has a 40% chance of being successful imo. So, Akram 6/10 in dead tracks, 9/10 in swinging conditions.

Agreed. Dhoni is a pretty smart cricketer and would realize that attacking Akram, especially from the outset, may be too big a challenge.

 

[MrIncredible]

one chink in his armor was the lack of a great out swinger. he developed a good leg cutter in the later half of his career that kept him on top despite the inevitable drop in pace due to age. but his wicket taking delivery was always the one that came in to the right hander. in the chapter on viv richards in his auto biog imran himself echoes this observation. dont get me wrong. i think imran is one of the greatest fast bowlers of all-time. but i consider marshall and hadlee to be the finished products.

Dont get it twisted Bag, i dont want u to think i am picking on Tendy, Like i said against ne of the top rung fast bowlers Im goin to give that bowler the edge over a top rung batsman unless that batsman is the Don.

Incidentally, I'd also give similar odds to many of the modern greats (Kallis, DRavid, Lara not Ponting though)

 

[subshakerz]

Regarding Warne vs. Viv, this is one battle of the egos I would pay to see. Just to see Warne's mindgames vs. Richards' swagger.

I envision this as either Warne getting Richard's wicket early through a miscued shot or stumping, or Richards carting Warne around the park. But overall, I think Richards' sharp reflexes and fearlessness in getting to the pitch of the ball would give him a slight 6/10 advantage over Warne. But what a battle it would be.

 

[aussie]

Regarding Warne vs. Viv, this is one battle of the egos I would pay to see. Just to see Warne's mindgames vs. Richards' swagger.

I envision this as either Warne getting Richard's wicket early through a miscued shot or stumping, or Richards carting Warne around the park. But overall, I think Richards' sharp reflexes and fearlessness in getting to the pitch of the ball would give him a slight 6/10 advantage over Warne. But what a battle it would be.

Indeed. I could imagine it already. Warne vs Lara, Richards, Sobers in a hypotetical match-up is mouth watering as well overall.

 

[MrIncredible]

Nah I think we've seen enough of Lara vs Warne to conclude that Warne would be torn to shreds, Same applies for Sobers. Do think he has a very good shot at Viv though (particularly on a spinners wicket) but overall Warne would be slaughtered.

Mcgrath or Lillee vs the above now that would be a treat!!

 

[The Sean]

Dont get it twisted Bag, i dont want u to think i am picking on Tendy, Like i said against ne of the top rung fast bowlers Im goin to give that bowler the edge over a top rung batsman unless that batsman is the Don.

Incidentally, I'd also give similar odds to many of the modern greats (Kallis, DRavid, Lara not Ponting though)

Do you mean you think that Ponting would do better or worse than the others?

Nah I think we've seen enough of Lara vs Warne to conclude that Warne would be torn to shreds, Same applies for Sobers. Do think he has a very good shot at Viv though (particularly on a spinners wicket) but overall Warne would be slaughtered.

Mcgrath or Lillee vs the above now that would be a treat!!

Likewise I think we saw enough of McGrath v Lara and Lillee v Richards to conclude honours just about even - the each bowler had plenty of success against their batsman, but Viv and Brian also managed to score a hell of a lot of runs when they got going.

Sobers v any of the above would be fascinating. We saw a young Lillee against a late-career Sobers in 71/72 and that was electrifying enough, but a pitched battle with everyone in their prime would be something else.

 

[Lillian Thomson]

Barry Richards v Murali.

 

[MrIncredible]

Do you mean you think that Ponting would do better or worse than the others?



Likewise I think we saw enough of McGrath v Lara and Lillee v Richards to conclude honours just about even - the each bowler had plenty of success against their batsman, but Viv and Brian also managed to score a hell of a lot of runs when they got going.

Sobers v any of the above would be fascinating. We saw a young Lillee against a late-career Sobers in 71/72 and that was electrifying enough, but a pitched battle with everyone in their prime would be something else.

I think Ponting would do better on a whole vs quality fast bowling than Tendy/Lara. Eagerly awaiting the expected fallout from this statement

 

[The Sean]

I think Ponting would do better on a whole vs quality fast bowling than Tendy/Lara. Eagerly awaiting the expected fallout from this statement

Ha ha, me too actually.

 

[subshakerz]

I think Ponting would do better on a whole vs quality fast bowling than Tendy/Lara. Eagerly awaiting the expected fallout from this statement

Better than Lara perhaps, around the same as Tendulkar though. Not near them when it comes to playing spin though.

 

[Shri]

I think Ponting would do better on a whole vs quality fast bowling than Tendy/Lara. Eagerly awaiting the expected fallout from this statement

I will take the bait.

Ball swinging in from just back of a good length at 140Kmph+ and Ponting woulgn't last long. Ishant Sharma - an average fast bowler exposed him in tests(for a brief time) and Bond was freakishly good against him too. What would legendary fast bowlers do? He has about as good a chance as the others at being good against quality pace bowling.

 

[bagapath]

I think Ponting would do better on a whole vs quality fast bowling than Tendy/Lara.

me too. the other two are better than ricky in handling spin. that doesnt mean ponting was crap against the turning ball or sachin and lara were running away from pace bowling though.

 

[Lillian Thomson]

I think Ponting would do better on a whole vs quality fast bowling than Tendy/Lara. Eagerly awaiting the expected fallout from this statement

Not sure about forum fall out, but there might be a risk of men in white coats carting you off to the funny farm.

 

[Prince EWS]

Better than Lara perhaps, around the same as Tendulkar though.

I tend to agree with this. None of them were poor against pace, obviously, but I'd tend to go with Tendulkar = Ponting > Lara route. Lara was the best player of spin out of the three though.

 

[Xuhaib]

Waqar 90-96 vs Dravid 2002-2006

 

[subshakerz]

Waqar 90-96 vs Dravid 2002-2006

It's more like Waqar 90-94, he was sidelined for a year in 1995 and his pace was dramatically reduced after that.

I would back Waqar 6-7/10, Dravid at his peak never faced many high pace fast bowlers and Waqar was as devastating as they come.

 

[bagapath]

Dravid at his peak never faced many high pace fast bowlers .

his peak and mcgrath/akhthar/pollock's peaks were not too far off. also, he played donald at his pomp (while dravid was still one rung below greatness) and handled him pretty well.