Match-Ups Made in Heaven

[watson]

In modern times there have been some great contests between individual players from opposing teams. Any contest between Steve Waugh and Curtly Ambrose was always great to watch. I also looked forward to seeing Dennis Lillee bowling to Vivian Richards or Greg Chappell taking on Richard Hadlee. Even Allan Border merely surviving against Malcolm Marshall with Gus Logie at short leg had its own drama.

However, we will never be able to witness Muttiah Muralitharan bowl his doosra to Victor Trumper. Nor will ever see Vivian Richards try to belt Sydney Barnes out if the attack. We can only speculate how Sachin Tendulkar would cope with an hour of Bill O'Reilly at the SCG. Then there is Jack Hobbs and Herbert Sutcliffe against Allan Donald in Cape Town. I wouldn't mind watching WG Grace try to hit Glen McGrath over the fence at Lords either. What would Len Hutton make of Wasim Akram? The list is endless......

However, if I had a time-machine I would first like to go back to 1930 and ask a young Donald Bradman to join me before forwarding to the West Indies in 1980 to pick up Michael Holding. These two greats would be my match-up made in heaven.

Who would you choose?

 

[Jager]

Muralitharan against Harvey. I daresay the latter would have won, but it would have been brilliant. I would just love to see modern day spinners get taught a lesson by the oldies- Trumper, Hobbs, Hammond, Bradman, McCabe, Morris, Harvey etc.

 

[ankitj]

Muralitharan against Harvey. I daresay the latter would have won, but it would have been brilliant. I would just love to see modern day spinners get taught a lesson by the oldies- Trumper, Hobbs, Hammond, Bradman, McCabe, Morris, Harvey etc.

Many of whom never played spinners of the quality of Murali and Warne...

 

[Jager]

Briggs, O'Reilly, Grimmett, Verity, Lock, Laker, Wardle, Valentine, Ramadhin and Tayfield are all players that come to mine over the period those guys played.

 

[watson]

Muralitharan against Harvey. I daresay the latter would have won, but it would have been brilliant. I would just love to see modern day spinners get taught a lesson by the oldies- Trumper, Hobbs, Hammond, Bradman, McCabe, Morris, Harvey etc.

And the flip-side to that scenario is the oldies getting taught a lesson by the 1980's quicks. I've always wondered whether the 'The Don' would lose his off stump against Michael Holding as Geoff Boycott did in Barbados, or would the same ball be crashed through the covers.

 

[watson]

As well as watching the respective skills of the different eras (incidently, Neil Harvey would probably make mince-meat of Murali, just like Brian Lara did) it would facinating watching the clash of personalities and temperments. The cool arrogance of Vivian Richards up against the white-hot arrogance of Sydney Barnes would be pure entertainment.

 

[Jager]

And the flip-side to that scenario is the oldies getting taught a lesson by the 1980's quicks. I've always wondered whether the 'The Don' would lose his off stump against Michael Holding as Geoff Boycott did in Barbados, or would the same ball be crashed through the covers.

It would be enthralling, but I'd put my money on Bradman of course.

 

[Jager]

As well as watching the respective skills of the different eras (incidently, Neil Harvey would probably make mince-meat of Murali, just like Brian Lara did) it would facinating watching the clash of personalities and temperments. The cool arrogance of Vivian Richards up against the white-hot arrogance of Sydney Barnes would be pure entertainment.

Definitely agree on the Harvey comparison- I think Murali and Warne were never consistently attacked, which is where they got a lot of their success from. The batsmen I listed would have attacked them relentlessly (for the most part).

 

[smash84]

Shaoib Akhtar versus Don Bradman bowling bodyline

 

[zaremba]

Botham bowling to Botham

 

[fredfertang]

I'd like to see Jeff Thomson circa 1974/75 bowling to Douglas Jardine

 

[Furball]

Ponting against the quicks of the 1980s would have been great to watch.

Shane Warne vs Viv Richards is another contest I'd love to have seen.

 

[Agent Nationaux]

Didn't Ponting's average increase after Wasim, Waqar, Ambrose, Donald etc had retired?

For me it would be Bradman and Waqar. Would love to see a Bradman hobbling thanks to Waqar's toe crusher.

 

[Pup Clarke]

I'd love to have seen a prime Waqar against this English batting line up. Carnage.

 

[Furball]

Didn't Ponting's average increase after Wasim, Waqar, Ambrose, Donald etc had retired?

Yep, because Ponting was coming into his prime years as a batsman.

He's one of the best against pace I've seen, but I think it would have been interesting to watch Ponting at his prime take on better bowlers.

 

[G.I.Joe]

Shane Warne vs Viv Richards is another contest I'd love to have seen.

Here's a teaser.

 

[kyear2]

Bradman vs Marshall and Holding at their peak.

Richards vs Warne

Hobbs and Sutcliffe vs Wasim and Waqar

 

[morgieb]

Warne against the current English lineup.

 

[watson]

Here's a teaser.

I think that we can safely say that Warne wouldn't want to "drag down" his delivery (as Healy put it) too often. That square cut to the boundary off a ball barely short of a length was glorious.

 

[watson]

It would be enthralling, but I'd put my money on Bradman of course.

I think that your money would be safe Jager. This short story comes from Jeff Thomson's book, 'Thomo Speaks Out' (pages 180, 183-84). Incidently, the "Doc" refers to Dr Donald Beard the former South Australian Cricket Association Medical Officer.

I was sitting alongside Sir Donald and Cheryl was next to Lady Jessie. There were a couple of Indian players there. Bishen Bedi was one and Vishy was also present. We finished eating, and there I was drinking a cold XXXX beer.

Bradman was sitting in his slacks, shirt and tie. He looked pretty fit for a bloke of his age. The Doc's two sons then announced that they were about to go outside and have a hit in the nets. The Doc had a grass tennis court and a turf cricket pitch in his spacious back yard. I watched the boys get up from the table and one of them laughingly asked, "Would you like to come and have a bat against us Sir Donald?"

All eyes turned to Bradman and without hesitation he replied, "Yes lads. I'd love to have a hit."..........

By the way Bradman was shaping up I decided to sit back and watch. I didn't realise at the time that I was about to see one of the greatest events in my cricketing life.

There was this little old guy in horn-rimmed glasses on a green pitch in an Adelaide backyard on the rest day of a Test Match. He wasn't wearing any protection: no pads, box or gloves. He was just standing there with a borrowed bat. I couldn't keep my eyes off Bradman. He was beaming..........

At the sight of the two fast bowlers Bradman's eyes lit up and you could see he was thinking, "Who are you two clowns? Do you think you are going to get me out? I've news for you." He assumed an air of supreme confidence. Now as he hoed into those two young fast men with relish it was as if Bradman was wearing a suit of armour; he was invincible, merciless.

That little guy in glasses was suddenly transformed into Don Bradman the human thrashing machine, belting every ball with power and precision. He did not play a false shot in 20 minutes of the most amazing batting I have ever seen. If anyone ****-bags this blokes batting, I'll tell them the truth.

Bradman was then 70 years old, yet he belted hell out of every ball. There wasn't a false stroke. Not one defensive shot and I likened the batting show to what we see of Bradman on the old film. The old black and white films of Bradman have him blasting every ball, not one false shot and certainly no defensive shots. I thought those old films were edited - you know, the editor cuts out all the **** shots. Now I know different.

How good must have Bradman been in his hey day? I reckon any player from then on or later on, blokes like Viv Richards and Ian or Greg Chappell, or any star from today, Brian Lara or Ricky Ponting, absolutely anyone, other than Bradman, would have struggled on that green pitch. It was seeming all over the place and those youngsters were operating at around Glen McGrath's pace.

If it were you or me, we'd be thinking of how we might get hit, but not Bradman. How do you reckon any bloke of 70 years of age would fare in similar circumstances? I don't care if they were former Test batsmen, they wouldn't have hit a ball, not one ball.

There is a lot of hyperbole in Jeff Thomson's recollections but we can still get the general idea. If a 70 year old Bradman can "belt" two bowlers operating at roughly 130 km/hr on a back-yard pitch then he'd probably go alright aged 20-30 against Marshall and Holding operating at around 150 km/hr on a flat Test Match wicket. Yes?