Auction draft II - ODI voting thread

[marc71178]

The first bowling category I'm going to look at is the strength of team's pace attacks. From best to worst I rank them as follows:

Pothas - As if it wouldn't be bad enough with Holding, McGrath and Bond coming at you, having Botham at 2nd change makes this pace attack formidable.

Pskov - 2 greats of the 80s added to the best left-arm quick in ODI history - this lot would be tricky to face.

Noble One - 5 front-line seamers to choose from, so quantity makes up for a slight lack in quality from Klusener and Harvey.

B]honestbharani[/B] - Another 4-prong attack which would work well together, and allow Waqar the chance be used when most useful.

weldone - Only 3 seamers here, and the consistency of Vaas does slightly detract from the sheer class of Ambrose and Pollock.

Cevno - Another 3 man seam team, loses out to weldone because the 3 are all behind weldone's top 2.

Himannv - Suffers from the same problem as weldone, with Mathews as 1st change.

Blakus - The back-up of Agarkar and Kallis makes this a solid quartet, albeit not spectacular enough to be higher up.

G.I.Joe - Unlike Noble One's 5 men, G.I.Joe suffers from a relative lack of star quality, only Lee really being able to compete with the best.

Somerset - Even assuming Sobers is the 3rd seamer, this side is weaker than the rest for me.

[marc71178]

Next in line is the quality of spinners, from best to worst I rank them as follows:

Somerset - A 3 prong attack spearheaded by Warne and containing the relatively unreadable Mendis is the strongest spin team for me.

Himannv - The only other team with more than 1 frontline spinner, and with Murali backed up by a more than capable Shakib, that puts this team as next best for me.

Pskov - As we're now comparing single spinners I had to rank them directly - Saqlain's formidable record puts him 3rd.

Cevno - Qadir strikes me as more of a wicket-taking bowler than a container, and I prefer that sort of bowler.

weldone - Kumble falls down for his relative lack of wickets, hence in the middle of the pack for me.

Noble One - If treated as what he should be thought of, Afridi would probably get more respect from the general cricket public. His batting seems to stop that happening though.

Pothas - Hogg was surprisingly effective for one reason or another, more than likely owing to the team he played in.

Blakus - The cult of Swanneh isn't enough for him to seriously challenge others in this draft, yet.

honestbharani - Price doesn't concede many runs, but then again he doesn't get many wickets.

G.I.Joe - In the absence of any other realistic options, I've called Harris a spinner, and also the worst one almost by default.

[Pothas]

Afridi a better ODI bowler than Hogg?

I am obviously biased but not sure I agree.

[Cruxdude]

Afridi a better ODI bowler than Hogg?

I am obviously biased but not sure I agree.

Me too.

[Somerset]

Next in line is the quality of spinners, from best to worst I rank them as follows:

Somerset - A 3 prong attack spearheaded by Warne and containing the relatively unreadable Mendis is the strongest spin team for me.

Pleased to see my side's strongest point reflected upon in Marc's ratings.

[honestbharani]

Pleased to see my side's strongest point reflected upon in Marc's ratings.

Mendis is so found out..

[G.I.Joe]

G.I.Joe - In the absence of any other realistic options, I've called Harris a spinner, and also the worst one almost by default.

Say wot!?? I have no problems being ranked last in the category, expected it too. But Harris isn't my spinner - Richards/Sehwag/Waugh are!

[marc71178]

Not in my eyes - they're ranked in the next category, the back-up bowlers.

[marc71178]

These are the one's you wouldn't be expecting to bowl 10 overs every game. From best to worst, I rank them as follows:

Cevno - 4 different options here, spearheaded by Chris Gayle and the in my mind under-rated Gregg Chappell.

Himannv - Another one with 4 options, would be particularly handy on turning wickets here.

G.I.Joe - Waugh can bowl a bit of seam-up or off spin, and Sehwag and especially Richards add more under-rated spin.

Pskov - Kemp is almost a front-line bowler, and Symonds variety adds to the options here.

weldone - Jayasuriya and Waugh could arguably be higher up the list, but for me Waugh didn't bowl enough in the majority of his career.

Blakus - Only really Hooper is a part-time bowler, but his off-spin was quite a consistent weapon when other things had been tried and didn't work.

Noble One - As a seam bowler, I possibly don't rate Ganguly very high because of having to bowl so much in the sub-continent. Smith just doesn't seem to bowl, which is a bit of a surprise for me.

honestbharani - Getting into the realms of the weak here, and it's only because of the number of options that I put this one above the bottom 2, although in truth Ponting, Chanderpaul and Hussey wouldn't worry any top batsman (or for that matter many tailenders)

Pothas - See the above comments for Trescothick and Yuvraj.

Somerset - For the 2nd time, Somerset gets a last place because of Michael Vaughan.

[Pothas]

Ignoring Tikolo?

Anyway who needs lesser bowlers when you have 5 great frontline ones.

[marc71178]

This is quite a tricky one to split to be honest, so my order may not agree to others but if we all agreed it would be boring! From highest to lowest:

Pothas - Gilchrist
Blakus - Dhoni
Noble One - McCullum
weldone - Boucher
Cevno - Haddin
Himannv - Kaluwitherana
Pskov - Stewart
Somerset - Flower
honestbharani - de Villiers
G.I.Joe - Dravid

[Somerset]

Hmm interesting. Thought I might score a bit higher on this category. Out of curiosity, where would you have placed Sangakkara?

[marc71178]

Probably about the same. This and the next one were very hard to split out once I'd put the part-timers at the bottom.

[Nnanden]

Not trying to disrespect Pothas at all, but I find it pretty silly that his side is comfortably number one. For mine his batting line-up is really weak.

[biased indian]

voted for GI.... batting > bowling in ODI's in most matches