Best Players of Fast Bowling

[hang on]

An interesting side discussion over the past few days on the Amarnath thread leads me to open this up.

Who would be your best players of fast bowling? Prefer if one were to concentrate more on the speed aspect of things than the swing and cut though the separation of the two is very difficult (think Donald as opposed to Pollock, if that helps, though pollock was reasonably rapid early on).

To start people off, here's the list I came up with based on my cricket following and watching:

chappell
gavaskar
tendulkar
richards
ponting
border
smith
waugh
crowe
gooch
amarnath
lara
inzamam

As in all lists, some the names which are clustered together can be changed around without too many problems.

Happy debating!

 

[Spark]

Playing seam bowling - Ponting at his peak, of everyone I've seen. Didn't look like getting out, and could score at a Gilchrist-like pace if he wanted to. Pure pace is definitely Ponting too.

In terms of playing all kinds of pace in any conditions, especially in terms of difficulty of getting out, peak Dravid of the ones I've seen.

 

[salman85]

I would put Inzi and Ponting both ahead of Tendulkar.Infact,in the last 20 odd years those two would be the best players of fast bowling i've seen,with not a lot to choose between them.

 

[hang on]

agree with ponting being among the best. as an attacking player of fast bowling, in particular.

somehow, neither dravid nor inzamam, despite the former's wallesque textbook orthodoxy and the latter's elephantine elegance and time to play his shots, convinced too much.

personal idiocyncracy, i suppose.

also did not rate lara too high either...would be anathema to many on here but...

 

[salman85]

IIRC correcly Lara did have some problems vs express pace.I remember Mohammad Zahid getting the better off him,and also Shoaib Akhtar too.I've not watched a lot of Lee-Lara duels,so i'm not sure what happened there.

Not to say Lara was a slouch against express pace,but i'm not sure he was good enough to be spoken amongst the best players of fast bowling.

 

[hang on]

that's correct, salman. he wasn't a slouch against anything!

but he seemed more easily discomfitted by express pace than some of the others.

might be a perception thing for me. or perhaps because he was suffering from a dip in form, morale etc. at the time when he looked 'ordinary' against people like zahid and donald. remember ntini, when he was scattergun quick when he first came onto the scene caused him some strife, if memory serves.

 

[salman85]

Yeah that could be the case.Lara had a pretty serious slump in the late 1990s when people like Zahid entered international cricket.The slump was not caused by fast bowlers.They just capitalized on it.

Despite that,i'm still not convinced that even an inform Lara is as good a player of fast bowling than in form Ponting,Inzi or Richards.

 

[hang on]

i agree.
i think that his batting which was all arcs and flourishes just resulted in the perception that he was beaten of dicomfitted more than he actually was....an exaggeration resulting from his style. just thinking out aloud.

 

[salman85]

Possibly.His style was pretty extravagant,and anytime he would be beaten for pace would look a tad ugly.

He was no Azharuddin for example,who i thought for all his ability,was a poor player of express pace.Or even Ganguly.

 

[kingpin]

Dravid was awesome against fast bowlers!!!

 

[flibbertyjibber]

Alan Lamb and Michael Vaughan

 

[hang on]

it's the opposite for inzi, in my opinion, since he looked at ease but did not score big as often as he could have against fast bowling. he did well in against ambrose and co. in the windies in the early 90s, i think.

 

[Spark]

I thought Vaughan had real trouble with balls that kept a bit low/came in? Seemed to get stuck on the back foot a lot early in his innings. Could be wrong though.

 

[hang on]

i found robin smith pretty damn good against the fasties.

lamb was good too but vaughan not too sure about.

 

[flibbertyjibber]

I thought Vaughan had real trouble with balls that kept a bit low/came in? Seemed to get stuck on the back foot a lot early in his innings. Could be wrong though.

Didn't have much trouble on his tour of Australia and Lee and Gillespie were as quick as anyone back then. His problems came when the injuries started hampering his trigger movements in my opinion.

 

[BoyBrumby]

Would add Alec Stewart to the list. His twin tons versus the Windies to set up the first win by any visiting team at Bridgtown for nearly 60 years in 1993/94 were probably his finest moment. Scored against Walsh and Ambrose in their pomps and the distinctly nippy Benjamins.

A marvellously defiant 164 following on against a fire-breathing Donald (who took 6 in the innings) at Old Trafford in 1998 was a tremendous knock too. Saved the game and ultimately set up the series win.

 

[hang on]

yeah, have to admit that series of vaughan's in australia was pretty special.

 

[fredfertang]

There are plenty of good ones about but none so fearless as Brian Close, who I did see, and will always remember playing Mikey Holding's short ones with his chest during that unforgettable final session at Old Trafford in 1976, and Douglas Jardine who showed the squealers how to do deal with fast leg theory in 1933 also, coincidentally, at Old Trafford

 

[Debris]

You almost have to split this thread into pre and post protective equipment. I agree with most of the batsmen posted here although some batsmen seem to decline with age. Richardson and Ponting were probably best I have seen in their prime but both look to fade with age.

 

[Flem274*]

Waqar reckons Crowe was the best batsman against fast reverse swing he ever bowled to.