watson
Banned
Ashley Mallet's 5 picks were;Quick picks
Five all-time great fast bowlers who had pace as well as every trick in the book
Ashley Mallett on the five best fast bowlers he has seen | Opinion | Cricinfo Magazine | ESPN Cricinfo
1. Ray Lindwall
2. Dennis Lillee
3. Wasim Akram
4. Alan Davidson
5. Malcolm Marshall.
It's interesting that he puts Lindwall at the top of the list as Lindwall rarely gets into peoples ATG A-team on this forum;
Other interesting comments were;Ray Lindwall heads my list of the five best fast bowlers I have seen.
Lillee played World Series Cricket for a couple of years, during which he worked diligently on his approach to the wicket and his delivery. He became an even better bowler technically, if that was even possible. The famous "caught Marsh bowled Lillee" dismissal appears on Test match scorecards 95 times.
To me, cricketing heaven would be Wasim Akram and Shane Warne bowling in tandem to Victor Trumper and Don Bradman.
I've seen some fabulous left-arm pace bowlers in my time, including Alan Davidson and Garry Sobers, but none of them at their top quite gets above Wasim.
While he didn't have the bustle or rapid bowling arm of Wasim, Davo had a nice rhythm. He used his front arm to good effect and had the ability to swing in late to the right-handers or angle the ball away. It was, of course, his ability to swing the ball that made his away angle so dangerous. So many of his Test victims were caught behind by the ever reliable Wally Grout.
Like Wasim, Marshall possessed a wickedly fast arm that took him at will from fast-medium to express. Marshall did not have the height of a Garner or a Holding, and like Lindwall's, his bouncer skidded at the batsman. In being very front-on, he was much like South Africa's Mike Procter; also in that he was relentlessly at you: both bowlers were hunters.