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How good is Sanga?

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  • Total voters
    69

viriya

International Captain
The 30s had 2 of the greatest spinners in Grimmett and O'Reilly. There were no clear bowling greats that played the majority of their careers in the 40s. Even though Hutton played some matches in the 50s the majority of his Ashes matches did not have as high a bowling standard as Hammond did.
 

harsh.ag

Cricket Web: All-Time Legend
The 30s had 2 of the greatest spinners in Grimmett and O'Reilly. There were no clear bowling greats that played the majority of their careers in the 40s. Even though Hutton played some matches in the 50s the majority of his Ashes matches did not have as high a bowling standard as Hammond did.
Lindwall-Miller-Johnston-Davidson-Benaud?
 

watson

Banned
I cannot figure out why people don't include Greg Chappell in the top group.
The 'top group' are batsman that you'd put in your ATG XI without too much hesitation.

Chappell almost makes that category because of his brilliance against the West Indian quicks during the 1970s and Richard Hadlee most of the time.

However, Chappell fell apart during the 1980/81 season against NZ when he ordered his brother to bowl underarm, and then opted out of the subsequent tour to England thus effectively handing the Ashes to Brearley, Botham, and Willis. During the West Indian tour of 1981/82 he made 7 consecutive ducks and managed only 61 runs during the 3 Tests. Obviously it is being overly picky to place too much emphasis on a batsmen failing briefly agaist Holding, Roberts, Garner, Croft and Clarke but unfortunately I watched most of those innings at the time on TV and it was terrible.

None of those above things prevent Chappell from being Australia's second best ever batsman, or being in the upper echelons of batsmanship. But they do create some hesitation when penciling my ATG XI.
 
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watson

Banned
The 30s had 2 of the greatest spinners in Grimmett and O'Reilly. There were no clear bowling greats that played the majority of their careers in the 40s. Even though Hutton played some matches in the 50s the majority of his Ashes matches did not have as high a bowling standard as Hammond did.
During the 1930s when Hammond played most of his cricket Australia only had one fast bowler of note - Tim Wall, and with all the best will in the world I don't think that we can compare Wall to the 1940s/50s quicks of Lindwall and Miller, or even Johnston.

But yes, Hammond had to face a pair of ATG spinners in O'Reilly and Grimmett; it's just that for the most part he had a free ride when it comes to fast bowling. Not so Hutton.
 
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viriya

International Captain
Lindwall-Miller-Johnston-Davidson-Benaud?
All of them played the majority of their careers in the 50s.. Hutton played them in about half his Ashes matches.. 15 of his 79 total matches.

Lindwall/Miller were great bowlers but not as great as Grimmett and O'Reilly were.

My point is even if Hutton eventually faced better pace bowling, it's unfair to say Hammond faced easier bowling when he clearly faced some ATG bowlers.
 
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watson

Banned
All of them played the majority of their careers in the 50s.. Hutton played them in about half his Ashes matches.. 15 of his 79 total matches.

Lindwall/Miller were great bowlers but not as great as Grimmett and O'Reilly were.

My point is even if Hutton eventually faced better pace bowling, it's unfair to say Hammond faced easier bowling when he clearly faced some ATG bowlers.
Facing great quicks is very different to facing great spinners. They are two separate beasts.

Anyway, Hutton scored 364 against Bill O'Reilly in 1938 so he was great at playing spin as well.
 
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viriya

International Captain
Are you suggesting that facing great quicks is tougher than facing great spinners?

Anyway I was probably being harsh on Hutton, but I'm just pointing out that facing 2 ATG spinners in tandem is something that batsmen haven't had to do since O'Reilly and Grimmett.. Closest to that has been Kumble and Harbhajan, who weren't in the same class.

As good as Lindwall/Miller/Davidson were they were not in the same class as Grimmett and O'Reilly when it came to just bowling. The two spinners made much more of an impact in the matches they played.
 
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watson

Banned
Are you suggesting that facing great quicks is tougher than facing great spinners?

Anyway I was probably being harsh on Hutton, but I'm just pointing out that facing 2 ATG spinners in tandem is something that batsmen haven't had to do since O'Reilly and Grimmett.. Closest to that has been Kumble and Harbhajan, who weren't in the same class.

As good as Lindwall/Miller/Davidson were they were not in the same class as Grimmett and O'Reilly when it came to just bowling. The two spinners made much more of an impact in the matches they played.
No. I'm saying that in the ideal world it is easier to rate ATG batsman who have competed regularly against both great fast bowlers and great spinners. Hammond was never really tested by a 'decent' pace attack at the Test level apart from after WWII when he was past it anyway.
 

kyear2

Cricketer Of The Year
Hutton faced far greater bowlers, especially fast bowlers. With regards to spinners Hutton scored a work record at 23 vs O'Reilly and also scored hundreds vs Ramadin and Valentine at their very peak.

Hammond struggled mightily vs the W.I quicks and they were hardly atg standard.
 

simonlee48

School Boy/Girl Captain
The 'top group' are batsman that you'd put in your ATG XI without too much hesitation.

Chappell almost makes that category because of his brilliance against the West Indian quicks during the 1970s and Richard Hadlee most of the time.

However, Chappell fell apart during the 1980/81 season against NZ when he ordered his brother to bowl underarm, and then opted out of the subsequent tour to England thus effectively handing the Ashes to Brearley, Botham, and Willis. During the West Indian tour of 1981/82 he made 7 consecutive ducks and managed only 61 runs during the 3 Tests. Obviously it is being overly picky to place too much emphasis on a batsmen failing briefly agaist Holding, Roberts, Garner, Croft and Clarke but unfortunately I watched most of those innings at the time on TV and it was terrible.

None of those above things prevent Chappell from being Australia's second best ever batsman, or being in the upper echelons of batsmanship. But they do create some hesitation when penciling my ATG XI.
Interesting angle regarding Chappell here. I started watching from mid 80s and missed all of this.
 
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smash84

The Tiger King
Blogs: Anantha Narayanan: Test streaks: 52 and 27 matches long | Cricket Blogs | ESPN Cricinfo

One of the comments below echoes my sentiments actually (and the writer's too I suppose)
Posted by its.rachit on (July 26, 2014, 13:17 GMT) - Featured comment

i have always believed that Imran never quite got his due ... IMHO, he is up there with Sobers and Bradman as the greatest cricketer ... average of 22 with the ball and 37 with the ball comfortably compares to Sobers with 57 and 34 ... even better than him according to me ... Imran averaged 19 with the ball an 51 with the bat between 1982-1992 ... comfortably matching the 99.94 of bradman as a combined contribution ... somehow due to his being an all-rounder, the bowler got lost some where .. he averages better than wasim,waqar and lillie ... neve quite understood why these 3 are universally put above him as bowlers .. Ananth your comments on this ???
[[
I would say, as a bowler Imran was right up there with the best. Add the batting average of 37 (7 above Srikkanth, let me remind readers), he is certainly in a class of his own. A class which had five players. So I must say i agree with you.
Ananth
]]
 

simonlee48

School Boy/Girl Captain
I bracket batsmen as ,

Bradman, Richards, Tendulkar, Sobers, Lara

Chappell, Ponting, Gavaskar, Border, Kallis, Dravid, Miandad

AB, Sanga, Clarke, Waugh


^ Just the names came in my mind. I have seen most of them.
 

smash84

The Tiger King
As far as batsmen go I usually tend to think (the first 2 are fixed for me, the rest a bit variable)

Bradman
Viv
Sobers, Lara, Tendy,
Chappell, Hobbs, Gavaskar, Kallis, Sanga, etc
 

Red

The normal awards that everyone else has
I'd go something like (post WW2)…

Bradman

Sobers
Tendulkar - V.Richards - Hutton - G.Chappell - Weekes - Ponting
Kallis - Sangakkara - S.Waugh - May - Pieterson - MoYo - Miandad - N.Harvey - DeVilliers - Walcott - G. Smith - Hayden - Greenidge - Gooch
Worrell - M.Hussey - M.Waugh - Jayawardene - Haynes - Bell

Not comprehensive or anything, more based on which players I think are more influential to their teams, and my personal opinion. All these players are "gold tier" or whatever in my opinion, however the bottom line is much closer to silver tier than the third.
 

simonlee48

School Boy/Girl Captain
I'd go something like (post WW2)…

Bradman

Sobers
Tendulkar - V.Richards - Hutton - G.Chappell - Weekes - Ponting
Kallis - Sangakkara - S.Waugh - May - Pieterson - MoYo - Miandad - N.Harvey - DeVilliers - Walcott - G. Smith - Hayden - Greenidge - Gooch
Worrell - M.Hussey - M.Waugh - Jayawardene - Haynes - Bell

Not comprehensive or anything, more based on which players I think are more influential to their teams, and my personal opinion. All these players are "gold tier" or whatever in my opinion, however the bottom line is much closer to silver tier than the third.
I am bit surprised to see you put MoYo up there in 2nd line. He was pretty poor against spin or bounce. He rarely had good time in SL/Ind or Aus/SA. That's 30 tests out of 90 tests for him. He played another 30 in Pakistan. If Pakistan had turning tracks like Ind or SL , I think he would have had a horrible career. He was one of the most elegant batsman to watch for sure. I found him very pleasing to watch.

Nothing against your opinion but just added my thoughts here because I noticed him having trouble against spin or bounce on consistent basis. I don't think, he had a great time on turning or bouncy pitches even in shorter formats. I thought his team mate Inzzy had much better skills to deal with spin. Both had issues with bounce though.
 
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