Greatest ODI batsman of all time

[sonnench]

Hashim Amla FTW

 

[weldone]

PS. As soon as I read the opening post and saw the poll options, I knew this thread will be all about Bevan.

Zaheer Abbas and Gordon Greenidge belong there IMO. So does Ponting I guess. Actually we should limit it to top 3 (Viv, Tendulkar, Bevan), and then there are a whole bunch below them.

Nah, Bevan should be in the 'whole bunch below them'.

 

[ankitj]

More fodder

 

[LongHopCassidy]

Tendulkar. He was leading runscorer in three successive World Cups (of only one which India played the maximum number of games) FFS.

Edit: checked 1999 and leading run getter was actually Dravid. Still, dominating two WCs by a long way isn't really expected of anyone.

 

[centurymaker]

In Tests Viv > sachin
In ODIs Sachin >> Viv

sachin had almost twice as many 90s as viv had 100s (18 90s to viv's 11 100s)
yea I do know viv mostly batted at 3 or 4.


tendulkar didn't get a single 90+ score till roughly his 80th innings, when he was 21 yrs old.
so that is 67 90+ scores from the next 370 innings over 18 yrs of time. (one every 5.5 innings)

absolute freakish..

I think only Kohli can come close to matching this sort of feat, given his age.

 

[SJS]

In Tests Viv > sachin
In ODIs Sachin >> Viv

sachin had almost twice as many 90s as viv had 100s (18 90s to viv's 11 100s)
yea I do know viv mostly batted at 3 or 4.


tendulkar didn't get a single 90+ score till roughly his 80th innings, when he was 21 yrs old.
so that is 67 90+ scores from the next 370 innings over 18 yrs of time. (one every 5.5 innings)

absolute freakish..

I think only Kohli can come close to matching this sort of feat, given his age.

Kohli is not likely to get within miles of Sachin's figures

 

[centurymaker]

Kohli is not likely to get within miles of Sachin's figures

the guy has 13 100s in 87 innings and he's just 24.

and he's only getting better.

I remember him leading india to an under 40-over win chasing 300+ against SL in Aus last yr when they needed a bonus point to stay alive in the series. He hit malinga for many many boundaries in no time at all. It was breathtaking batting.
I think at one stage the run-rate had creeped over 10 and india needed around 200 more in 20 or so overs to get a bonus point win.

 

[indiaholic]

For what its worth, I think Sachin is the better player in both tests and ODIs. By a very small margin but yeah, better.
Bevan firmly below the two of them, IMO.

 

[Dan]

Now that I think about it further, I think you have to categorise it further than just 'batsman' with ODIs, because the roles are so very different that comparisons between a Sachin and a Bevan don't work.

In terms of top-order players, you have Tendulkar and Viv far above the likes of Ponting, Abbas, Miandad, Amla, Jones et al.

In terms of lower-order players, Bevan and Dhoni rise above all other 'finishers'.

You really can't compare between them.

 

[centurymaker]

Now that I think about it further, I think you have to categorise it further than just 'batsman' with ODIs, because the roles are so very different that comparisons between a Sachin and a Bevan don't work.

In terms of top-order players, you have Tendulkar and Viv far above the likes of Ponting, Abbas, Miandad, Amla, Jones et al.

In terms of lower-order players, Bevan and Dhoni rise above all other 'finishers'.

You really can't compare between them.

If I had to pick a batsman though, I'd go with a top order batsman because they do most of the scoring. (and they are generally the better batsmen)
......................

btw Kohli is not even an opener. bats at 3 or 4 and has such amazing stats already. (has finished a number of games too)

 

[Dan]

I think you missed the point entirely.

And I don't understand why you're talking about Kohli here.

 

[uvelocity]

Think you'd give it to tendulkar as a batsman but only really on pewsies longevity deal. I think if you took so many points in his career you could easily nominate better batsmen at that time (given that I rate performance in winning games on the big stage the most important) but tendulkar has outlasted them all

 

[Spark]

Now that I think about it further, I think you have to categorise it further than just 'batsman' with ODIs, because the roles are so very different that comparisons between a Sachin and a Bevan don't work.

In terms of top-order players, you have Tendulkar and Viv far above the likes of Ponting, Abbas, Miandad, Amla, Jones et al.

In terms of lower-order players, Bevan and Dhoni rise above all other 'finishers'.

You really can't compare between them.

This is exactly my point. And I think you even need to subdivide it further, IMO.

 

[centurymaker]

I think you missed the point entirely.

And I don't understand why you're talking about Kohli here.

nah i do agree that you can't really put finishers and top order guys in the same category since their roles and skill-sets are quite different.

kohli bit was aimed at SJS

 

[fredfertang]

Pull the other one.

Graeme Hick

 

[SJS]

the guy has 13 100s in 87 innings and he's just 24.

and he's only getting better.

I remember him leading india to an under 40-over win chasing 300+ against SL in Aus last yr when they needed a bonus point to stay alive in the series. He hit malinga for many many boundaries in no time at all. It was breathtaking batting.
I think at one stage the run-rate had creeped over 10 and india needed around 200 more in 20 or so overs to get a bonus point win.

Lets agree to meet here in ten years' time.

To the other response on Kohli's batting order, it makes no difference, not to me nor do absute stats. Big did not open and did not match most of SRT's stats - just check who I voted for as the greatest psi batsman in the poll. No I am not talking just stats

 

[smash84]

Kohli looked fairly troubled against Irfan yesterday will have to watch more of him in the future.

 

[bagapath]

tough, tough question. over the years we have seen some great finishers in bevan, hussey, symonds, klusener, lamb, fairbrother, dean jones and dhoni. and some fantastic middle order champions in lara, inzamam, de silva, miandad, zaheer abbas, de villiers, g.chappell, kohli, c.lloyd and kallis. and some awesome top order stalwarts in gilchrist, jayasuriya, anwar, m.waugh, amla, hayden, ganguly and greenidge.

but i firmly believe that the crown for the greatest ODI batter over-all should belong to one of viv richards, tendulkar or ponting. they set up games scoring big, chased improbable targets controlling the innings, destroyed attacks in electrifying cameos, built partnerships from precarious positions, and remained the backbone of their celebrated batting line-ups for many many years.

the fact that he was the most complete batsman of his era (from test cricket perspective, I admit, he averaged 40 in every country he played in) gave sachin the aura and he had the numbers to back his claim. ponting OTOH was a notch below the other two both in terms of average and strike rate making him lag behind in this race for primus inter pares. but on certain days, when on song, he looked the best batsman ever.

viv richards gets my vote because he invented the art of ODI batting. in ODI cricket's infancy when greenidge's SR of 65 was never considered slow, viv scored at 90 per 100 balls which was on par with jayasuriya's. and he averaged 47 over 180+ matches. there was no rule on bouncer restriction and nothing known as power play fielding conditions when he took on his opposition for 17 years aorund the globe. he hit over the top, cross batted fast bowlers, hooked, swept and kept losing the ball in the crowd. and it was bloody difficult to get him out despite the aggression.

of course, tendulkar, ponting and gilchrist are automatic choices in an all time XI. but their names will be written after you print the name of Sir IVA Richards.

 

[Ikki]

AWTA; Ponting is a bit below Viv and Sachin in the top order batsmen but it isn't as big a gap as people think.

 

[smash84]

Ponting really isn't an automatic choice in an ATXI and neither is Gilchrist (ODI AT XI)