The best ever players of spin bowling?

[OverratedSanity]

Several times? Don't recall anything other than 270 he made. Most of the time never got to face Murali because he was cleaned up by Vaas with regularity.

Got a big 170 odd too IIRC. Played Murali with as much ease as anyone.

 

[OverratedSanity]

Kallis has a good record too.

Does he? Can't remember him doing anything worth noting against Murali or Warne. Been a beast in India though

 

[subshakerz]

Saeed Anwar deserves a shout. Did excellent against the big three, Warne, Murali and Kumble, both home and away. I rarely if ever saw him struggle against spin. Great wrists and all the time in the world...

 

[flibbertyjibber]

Does he? Can't remember him doing anything worth noting against Murali or Warne. Been a beast in India though

Did get a couple of tons v Aussies and Warne in 06. Not many players were able to tame both those guys and I was saying by SA standards as none had been mentioned. His record in India has to count as a plus as does his record in Pakistan.

 

[Migara]

Yup averaging over 100 in Sri Lanka with a couple of big tons and three fifties really shows that to be the case.

Sri Lanka were his bitch.

Yeah, you are correct. It was in NZ that he was regularly cleaned up by Vaas and few left armers, and as a result averaged 33. It's mostly in ODIs when he opened he came across Vaas

 

[Salamuddin]

KP and Clarke obviously the best of the contemporaries, along with Tendulkar and Dravid way back when.

Some of the historical ones throw up a few surprises:

Bill Ponsford - every spinner in the Sheffield Shield allegedly much preferred to bowl to Bradman than Ponsford.

Javed Miandad, although he had a bit of help from home umpires.

Salim Malik, the first player to get the better of Warnie after he became a fixture in the Australian team. Warnie rates him third as the most annoying to bowl to after Tendulkar and Lara.

Sunil Gavaskar - his tremendous record against the Windies was actually mostly gained against flogging Lance Gibbs and co. Freakish record against Pakistan before they came to rely mostly on Imran and Wasim.

Darren Lehmann - Murali after the Australian tour of SL in 2004 said nobody had ever played him better.

Brian Lara, obviously.

MS Dhoni actually averaged over 90 at an SR of 65 against spin bowling between 2011 and 2013.

Navjot Sidhu, of all people, actually gets a lot of shout-outs from his contemporaries for his attacking technique against spin.

Graham Thorpe pretty much stood alone in the English teams as the go-to player for stopping collapses in India and Australia.

Andy Flower was one of the few players to treat Kumble and Harbhajan with absolute contempt in their own backyard.

And interestingly, for all the **** Matthew Hayden cops on this forum he's never attracted criticism on CW for his technique against spin. Freakish record in India.


Any other good ones?

His record in India is a bit overplayed IMO. He had one excellent series in 2001 when India were fielding an attack sans Kumble and Srinath (for two tests) and then averaged 30 and 33 on his two subsequent trips.

 

[Maximas]

Opening the batting is also generally the easiest position for non-SC teams who tour India IMO

 

[flibbertyjibber]

Opening the batting is also generally the easiest position for non-SC teams who tour India IMO

Yeah, you would never say Cook was a great player of spin but he had a great tour of India last year.

 

[Chrish]

Sehwag by a distance.. Never have I seen a player dominate spin with such arrogance and consistency

 

[honestbharani]

Lara..

 

[vitalogy83]

Lara for sure. Him destroying Murali still haunts me although we won that series.

Has Jayawardene got a mention? Easily the best player of spin in the SL ranks since Aravinda and Arjuna left. Far better than Sanga.

 

[Fuller Pilch]

Yup averaging over 100 in Sri Lanka with a couple of big tons and three fifties really shows that to be the case.

Sri Lanka were his bitch.

And he did this - the late Martin Crowe on commentary

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=V9HTNO6t0CI

 

[Daemon]

And he did this - the late Martin Crowe on commentary

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=V9HTNO6t0CI

Lol at the fielding effort at 1:30, fielding's seriously come a long way even in the last decade or so.

Fleming tho, so good to watch

 

[Gob]

Usman

 

[Black_Warrior]

Warner

 

[bagapath]

There was this dude
Leftie
Aussie
With a technique that was ugly as ****
But
He could cut with the hunger of a Bengal tiger locked up in an Eritrean zoo, pull with the desire of a truck driver spotting a hooker in the middle of nowhere and drive through the off side with the grace of a speeding train
And he could sweep
And he did sweep
Anytime any spinner erred in length
He swept very very fine when there was a fielder at square leg
And he swept very very square if the player moved a little finer
And he swept with power
Often
With success
And he swept again
And again
And again
Spinners hated him (fast bowlers hated him too)
Spinners couldn't get him out easily (neither could the pacers)
They fretted and fumed
They fought hard and lost
Finally they waved the white flag and
Waited for him to give up
When he eventually did, they instituted an award in his name and started giving out medals every year
His name I forgot

Piss drunk but sill in awe of that batsman

 

[weldone]

bagapath seems to have turned into a mixture of Dawood and a truck driver

 

[OverratedSanity]

There's a Matthew Hayden medal?-

 

[Red]

Graham Gooch was a good player of spinner, Warne in particular.

 

[honestbharani]

Some of the Pakistan batsmen are absolute nightmares for any spinner to bowl to. They generally are not remembered for it though as they are often absolute **** against fast bowlers and swing bowlers away from home and the fact that Warney had their numbers a few times. But if you look overall, they can absolutely demoralize any spinner. Its not just that they score runs. There is hardly ever a false stroke or an edge or a ball beating the bat. They just operate at such complete control that its crazy.