Graeme Smith vs Kevin Pietersen - better test batsman?

[Spikey]

why don't we ask hussain, vaughan and strauss

 

[Prince EWS]

why don't we ask hussain, vaughan and strauss

Can't trust them anymore.

 

[harsh.ag]

Seems like a KP fan thread to me, started to get some KP love. Of course he is a better batsman than Smith. Just look at the way they play. KP can be sublime, a real joy to watch. Same reason Gower is a better batsman than Gooch.

 

[Prince EWS]

Seems like a KP fan thread to me, started to get some KP love.

That'd be a fine theory but for the fact that the bloke who started the thread is South African and said he thought Smith was better.

Smith for me, anyway. You don't get extra runs added to your total by being good to watch (which I personally don't think Pietersen is anyway, although granted he is definitely better to watch than Smith). Their output is very similar but it's harder/rarer to do that good of a job as an opener so I'd take Smith, just. Someone else made the point that Cook is very similar to Smith, and I bet most England fans would sooner forego Pietersen than Cook in their Test side.

 

[Top_Cat]

KP. Would be more nervous with him at the crease than Smith as an oppo captain except in a chase, obv.

Interesting that the comparison is even coming up, pretty sure most thought we'd be comparing him to Viv, Chappell, etc. at this stage of his career.

 

[Noble One]

Tough comparison when viewed from an Australian perspective. Smith has played some memorable innings against Australia, however his career record is poor against us. Pieterson always lifts against Australia.

 

[Flametree]

Comparing an opener to a middle-order player is tricky. I think a more interesting thread would be to compare Pietersen to Clarke....

 

[Spark]

We've had that one about five times though.

 

[Hurricane]

I wouldn't call KP elegant as sometimes he appears to muscle the ball - but he appears the more technically correct.

 

[hazsa19]

I wouldn't call KP elegant as sometimes he appears to muscle the ball - but he appears the more technically correct.

Sometimes he merely pushes the ball straight for 4, or flicks nicely through mid-wicket. He is elegant then, but most of the time I would describe him as flamboyant rather than elegant.

 

[vic_orthdox]

I'd take Smith.

Sure, there's things that KP can do that Smith can't, but there's also things that KP can do that Smith never would.

 

[kyear2]

Graeme to me all ready an ATG (or borderline), and one of the top two openers ever produced by S.A. He is tough in a crisis and can push home the advange if required. Pietersen shades him for me though, at his very best can decimate any attack and change the course and outcome of a match. He is the closest.example for this generation for what it was like to watch the Master Blaster. He took on Warne and Mcgrath like only Lara and Sachin could.
K.P for me.

 

[Flametree]

We've had that one about five times though.

Told you it was interesting....

 

[Briony]

Interestingly enough while KP is the more explosive, their scoring rates in test cricket aren't that much different.

Also interesting that most seem to think that being elegant a la Gower etc. makes people better batsmen but surely it's more about the overall record and when you score the runs.

While KP did score runs against the Aussies in the mid noughties, were McGrath and Warne past their peak by then?

 

[vic_orthdox]

McGrath and Warne had such big deteriorations in their final few years...

 

[BoyBrumby]

I think Pietersen's ceiling as a batsman in an awful lot higher than Smith's.

The proof of this is in both having similar records and the consensus being that Smith has done very nicely, ta v much & Pietersen carrying the faint whiff of a forever unfulfilled potential. He'll probably retire (or have his test career ended by pissing off the ECB/his teammates once too often) as the highest English (yeah, yeah...) run scorer and century maker, but it still seems too scant a return for a man of his abilities.

It's a matter of record that I'm not Master Smith's biggest fan, when he first emerged he was, frankly, a fat blow-hard who told tales out of school but there's no doubt in my mind that he has matured as man. Experience has given him a sense of perspective. Still fat tho, obvz.

KP, meanwhile, seems to be caught in a permanent adolescent ego trip and, if one judges him on his actions, genuinely seems to lack any real sense of the consequences his actions have on other people.

 

[Noble One]

A fair argument could be made that McGrath and Warne bowled near there peak towards the end. Warne v KP in '05 was one of the greatest battles ever.

 

[uvelocity]

a fat blow-hard .....Still fat tho, obvz.

z

 

[Briony]

I'd take Smith.

Sure, there's things that KP can do that Smith can't, but there's also things that KP can do that Smith never would.

As a matter of interest could KP average near fifty as an opener?

 

[Noble One]

As a matter of interest could KP average near fifty as an opener?

Would allow him 30-40 runs before the SLA has a bowl.