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Playing with soft hands...

Mr Mxyzptlk

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Who do you guys consider the best player of spin in the world right now?

I find it hard to look past Lara. IMO it's...

1/ Lara.
2/ Hayden.
3/ Flinto...er.. Tendulkar
4/ Ganga - yes Ganga.
5/ Dravid.

Several names escape my mind I'm sure, but I'd be very interested in hearing the opinions of others.
 

Tim

Cricketer Of The Year
I'd add Craig McMillan...he's one of the few i've seen able to have a go at Warne & survive. And he was also very good against the Indian spinners in India.
 

Mister Wright

Cricket Web: All-Time Legend
Lara for sure. You can't question Hayden's ability against spin now. And Laxman is a quality player of spin.

1. Lara
2. Laxman
3. Hayden
4. Flower (he's still playing for South Australia)
5. Dravid

Tendulkar, Kallis & Inzy have to be up there. Does Anwar count? He did play this year.
 

ReallyCrazy

Banned
for me sourav ganguly is the best player of spin. He uses his feet very well aginst them and hits them over the top cleanly.
 

Mr Mxyzptlk

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ReallyCrazy said:
for me sourav ganguly is the best player of spin. He uses his feet very well aginst them and hits them over the top cleanly.
But has he not thoroughly tamed Murali?
Has he smashed 28 off an over? ;)
 

Craig

World Traveller
Well Fleming did play him well NZ toured there. Well when he scored his 274*.

Probably with Lara though. Marcus Trescothick and Graham Thrope perhaps play spin better then any other Englishmen.
 

Rik

Cricketer Of The Year
1. Brian Lara
2. Andy Flower
3. Marcus Trescothick
4. Matthey Hayden
5. Sachin Tendulkar

I don't think "Soft Hands" applies to Hayden's method of playing spin somehow...
 

PY

International Coach
Mr Mxyzptlk said:
best player of spin in the world right now?
Right this moment, I'd go for Michael Vaughan because he has just played a 333 ball innings against an attack containing the best spinner around at the moment.

But generally, I'd probably go for Lara or Dravid.
 

Richard

Cricket Web Staff Member
Tim said:
I'd add Craig McMillan...he's one of the few i've seen able to have a go at Warne & survive. And he was also very good against the Indian spinners in India.
What, like the last time he toured Australia, averaged just over 36 (when three averaged over 70 and one over 47) and tried that stupid crap stance?
Sure, that worked!
Fair enough, though, he played the Indian slow-bowlers well, but none of those pitches seemed to have much turn in them.:)
 

Richard

Cricket Web Staff Member
For me:
Hayden
Tendulkar
Lara
Dravid
Ganguly
Amazing that there are no Sri Lankans in there. Almost all their players (Atapattu, Jayasuriya, Dilshan, Sangakkara, Tillikeratne, Samaraweera) seem equal. Jayawardene's just a bit less good than the rest.
I think because Hayden hasn't played in any spin-friendly conditions recently people have forgotten how incredible his ability to cope with it is. I've seen and heard about him playing some of the most incredible innings on turning pitches.
Shame he's so vulnerable to seam and swing.
 

Rik

Cricketer Of The Year
Jayawardene is just coming back into form. I'd say he's probably the best Sri Lankan Test batsman.
 

Richard

Cricket Web Staff Member
For mine Atapattu has the highest potential, but no arguing with the number of single-figure scores he's made throughout his career.
Sangakkara and Jayawardene have averages you can't argue with. But for mine Sangakkara is the better all-round player, even if he has played a few less games.
 

Rik

Cricketer Of The Year
Richard said:
For mine Atapattu has the highest potential, but no arguing with the number of single-figure scores he's made throughout his career.
Sangakkara and Jayawardene have averages you can't argue with. But for mine Sangakkara is the better all-round player, even if he has played a few less games.
Sangakkara has cashed in a lot on dead pitches. Not that long ago, when Sri Lanka came to England, in 2002, Jayawardene came into the series having scored the most runs in the calender year out of anyone in the world, including Hayden. Attapattu was in 7th place I think, maybe 9th but definately on the list. He finished the 2nd highest run-scorer in the series for Sri Lanka with 272 runs at 54.40, Attapattu scored 277 at 55.40, also scored more runs on the tour than Attapattu and de Silva who played 7 and 8 games respectively. Jayawardene scored 567 runs at 63.00 in 6 games compared to de Silva's 500 at 50.00 and Attapattu's 522 at 47.45

He's a quality player. Sangakkara had a horror tour scoring only 345 runs in 9 games at 26.53, 105 at 21.00 in the 3 Tests.
 

Richard

Cricket Web Staff Member
In the only tough conditions of that series, Jayawardene was the only one to make anything of anything (47 in the first-innings at Edgbaston).
In that innings Sangakkara played possibly the worst shot I have ever seen in a Test-match.
Most Sri Lankans have cashed-in on pretty easy batting conditions. That Lord's century is actually Jayawardene's only overseas Test century. I'm not sure Sangakkara has ever scored a century overseas, though he came quite close in South Africa in the series preceding SL-Eng 2000\01, twice. Jayawardene came even closer.
Sangakkara had a terrible trot in England; Jayawardene had a poor trot (not quite as bad as Sangakkara) shortly after (SA in SA, NZ in SL, WI in WI).
Both have had their Test averages over 50 for a time. I don't think either are quite that good - both I would expect to average 45-46.
If Atapattu scored more 30s and 50s instead of single-figure scores he'd be averaging between 45 and 50. He's got so many double-centuries, with more probably to come, but he's made an amazing number of ducks, too. That was the precise pattern in both the recent England series'. This time he's just been plain disappointing.
 

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