Best ODI XI You Have Seen

[Pratters]

South Africa 1996-99, Sri Lanka 1996 for me.

[Richard]

Impossible to go past South Africa of the 1999 World Cup and a few other games around that time:
Kirsten
Gibbs
Kallis
Cullinan
Cronje
Rhodes
Boucher
Klusener
Pollock
Elworthy
Donald

Unbeatable... except when a stupid run-out happens of course.

[Pratters]

Both sides bat deep. South Africa have great all rounders. Sri Lanka unproven in conditions abroad. South Africa 1996-99 for batting so deep and having all these all rounders has to be the best ODI team I have seen ahead of the likes of Australia (not deep enough, so can collapse on a given day). Windies is a tough one. In tests it would obviously be West Indies of 70s and 80s but in ODIs RSA also had the terrific fielding (Rhodes, et all), bowling (Donald spearheading). It was a great team. Shame they couldn't win the world cup in 1999.

They batted so deep with Symcox and the likes. Really impressive.

[Pratters]

Originally Posted by Richard

Impossible to go past South Africa of the 1999 World Cup and a few other games around that time:
Kirsten
Gibbs
Kallis
Cullinan
Cronje
Rhodes
Boucher
Klusener
Pollock
Elworthy
Donald

Unbeatable... except when a stupid run-out happens of course.

Echoed the sentiments in the last post without reading your post and was trying to put eleven names down.

[Richard]

The first Sri Lankan first-choice side I ever saw (not sure if it ever played together but it came close many times around 1998 sort of time) wasn't half bad either:
Jayasuriya
Kaluwitharana
Atapattu
de Silva
Ranatunga (replaced with Sangakkara later)
Tillakaratne
Dharmasena
Vaas
Zoysa
Wickremasinghe
Muralitharan

Not deep batting in that case, but one of the strongest bowling attacks you could wish to see.

[Sir Alex]

Originally Posted by Richard

Impossible to go past South Africa of the 1999 World Cup and a few other games around that time:
Kirsten
Gibbs
Kallis
Cullinan
Cronje
Rhodes
Boucher
Klusener
Pollock
Elworthy
Donald

Unbeatable... except when a stupid run-out happens of course.

Weren't they beaten by Australia in the initial round as well?

For me, any team that wins the World Cup is a fantastic team. So hard to look beyond the Australian teams that won the last 3 World cups. My favorite would be the 2003 one. They simply looked unassailable and had this pheonix quality of theirs to come back from the dead was incredible.

[Pratters]

You forgot Boje Richards. Boje averages 38 at 3 and 19 at 9. Useful player.

[Richard]

The best Australian ODI side I ever saw wasn't half bad either:
M Waugh
Gilchrist
Ponting
Bevan
S Waugh
Lehmann
Martyn
Warne
B Lee
Gillespie
McGrath

(I'm fairly sure that appeared together once or twice in 2000/01)

[Richard]

Originally Posted by Pratters

You forgot Boje Richards. Boje averages 38 at 3 and 19 at 9. Useful player.

Useful backup player (as was Symcox earlier) but not good enough to displace any of the first-choice players in that side.

Other players SA had available around that time:
Henry Williams
David Terbrugge
Mornantau Hayward

None, obviously, World-beaters but all more than decent backup players.

[Pratters]

Originally Posted by Richard

The first Sri Lankan first-choice side I ever saw (not sure if it ever played together but it came close many times around 1998 sort of time) wasn't half bad either:
Jayasuriya
Kaluwitharana
Atapattu
de Silva
Ranatunga (replaced with Sangakkara later)
Tillakaratne
Dharmasena
Vaas
Zoysa
Wickremasinghe
Muralitharan

Not deep batting in that case, but one of the strongest bowling attacks you could wish to see.

1996

Jayasuriya
Kaluwitharana (you'd be 100/1 after 15 more often than not with those two at the top)
Gurusinha
De Silva
Mahanama
Ranatunga
Tillekeratne
Dharmasena
Vaas (can bat)
Wickremesinghe
Murali

[Pratters]

Richard Elworthy wasn't first XI. He played only a few ODIs. Boje played a few but not that many.

The player you are looking for is DeVilliers.

[Pratters]

and it wasn't Boucher. It was Dave Richardson for most of 1996-99.

[Richard]

Originally Posted by Pratters

Richard Elworthy wasn't first XI. He played only a few ODIs. Boje played a few but not that many.

The player you are looking for is DeVilliers.

Fanie de Villiers (like Craig Matthews)' career was notably over before the start of that of the likes of Gibbs, Kallis and Boucher. Not sure there was more than a year or so's crossover even with Pollock. Stephen Elworthy wasn't, long-term, a good ODI bowler at all but he was damn brilliant for those few months in the World Cup and was certainly a first-choice throughout.

Make no mistake, Matthews and de Villiers were both brilliant ODI bowlers who any side would kill to possess at the current time, but they were part of an earlier SA side than those who make-up important parts of the very best one.

[Richard]

Originally Posted by Pratters

and it wasn't Boucher. It was Dave Richardson for most of 1996-99.

It was about half-and-half. Richardson was first-choice in 1996/97 and most of 1997/98, then Boucher came in toward the end, remained in in 1998, 1998/99, 1999 and 1999/2000.

[Maximus0723]

Gotta go with Aussies of late ninties.