• Welcome to the Cricket Web forums, one of the biggest forums in the world dedicated to cricket.

    You are currently viewing our boards as a guest which gives you limited access to view most discussions and access our other features. By joining our free community you will have access to post topics, respond to polls, upload content and access many other special features. Registration is fast, simple and absolutely free so please, join the Cricket Web community today!

    If you have any problems with the registration process or your account login, please contact us.

Best Series Performances: Bowlers

subshakerz

International Coach
I was thinking that we always seems to focus on singular performances, have there been any threads ranking the best series performances of bowlers? Would be an interesting exercise.

I was thinking post-war which performances stand out. Here are a few:

Macolm Marshall vs. India in India, 1983

HowSTAT! Test Cricket - Malcolm Marshall - Progressive Bowling

Marshall's first series where he showed his greatness, his pure pace sliced through India on featherbed wickets. 33 wickets is an awesome achievement when you consider he was part of a pack of 4 worldclass bowlers.

Harbajhan Singh vs Australia in India, 2001
HowSTAT! Test Cricket - Harbhajan Singh - Progressive Bowling

Harbie's breakthrough series, he had a sequence of four consecutive inning collapses against an all-time great Aussie lineup.

Imran Khan vs India in Pakistan, 1983
HowSTAT! Test Cricket - Imran Kham - Progressive Bowling

The height of Imran's career, when he married pace with reverse swing. On baked clay pitches, he destroyed a strong Indian lineup. Took 40 wickets in 6 tests, including three back to back matchwinning tests that gave him 30 wickets @ 11!

Richard Hadlee vs Australia in Australia 1985
HowSTAT! Test Cricket - Richard Hadlee - Progressive Bowling

A perfect storm, Richard Hadlee, greenish wickets and an uncertain Aussie lineup. He tore through them with relentless control to win NZ their first series Down Under.

Any others?
 

morgieb

Request Your Custom Title Now!
Yeah the last three are good answers.

Few recent ones that come to mind straight away:

Mitchell Johnson vs England in Australia 2013/14
Shane Warne vs England in England 2005
Dale Steyn vs New Zealand in South Africa 2007 - yes oppo was weak but 20 wickets in 2 games is still pretty ****ing special. He's probably had better though...

In Harbhajan's series McGrath's stats were amazing for a quick too IIRC.
 

OverratedSanity

Request Your Custom Title Now!
Best I've seen are:

Harbhajan 2001

Broad vs us in 2011 (at times he seemed to produce 2-3 magic deliveries every over... it was insane)

MJ 2013-14 Ashes

Steyn vs India 2010-11

Might be missing a few but off the top of my head those are the best.
 

subshakerz

International Coach
Best I've seen are:

Harbhajan 2001

Broad vs us in 2011 (at times he seemed to produce 2-3 magic deliveries every over... it was insane)

MJ 2013-14 Ashes

Steyn vs India 2010-11

Might be missing a few but off the top of my head those are the best.
As far as I know, Steyn only had one good test in that series.
 

subshakerz

International Coach
Warne '05 vs England
Johnson 13/14 vs England
Ambrose 92/93 vs Aus
I feel that Warne's performance in that series, while great, wasn't really his pinnacle. There were really only a couple spells in that series where he threatened to run through England, and weren't enough to win a match for his team.

I actually rate his series against Sri Lanka in 2004, when he took 26 wickets in 3 tests, higher. He was returning after a ban, was facing better players of spin, and was the key player with McGrath absent in winning all 3 games after being behind in each,
 

Migara

Cricketer Of The Year
I actually rate his series against Sri Lanka in 2004, when he took 26 wickets in 3 tests, higher. He was returning after a ban, was facing better players of spin, and was the key player with McGrath absent in winning all 3 games after being behind in each,
This is bit of a myth. That team was the lightest on batting if you bar the current team in recent times. Tillekaratne was out of form as a batsman and was horrible as a captain. Warne bowled pretty well, but it was tactical blunders by Tillekaratne and tactical brilliance by Ponting which won the series for Aussies.
 

pardus

School Boy/Girl Captain
McGrath took 30 wickets in 4 Tests in 98-99 series against Windies (Lara's watershed series). But McGrath's bowling performances in that series were overshadowed by Lara's batting feats.
Saqlain Mushtaq took 20 wickets in 2 Tests against India in 1999 (to me, the ultimate series achievement for a spinner).

Marshall's bowling against India in that 83 series is one of the two quickest and most frightening spells of fast bowling that I saw live (other being Patrick Patterson a few years later).
Somehow I feel stats, no matter how good, don't do complete justice to Marshall here. Marshall looked like injuring the batsman in every delivery he bowled.
I remember one particular delivery in Kanpur Test was so quick and so vicious that it literally knocked the bat out of Sunil Gavaskar's hands.
I couldn't help but feel sorry for the Indian batsmen that they had no choice but to go out and face him. They did show a lot of courage though.
To my eyes, Gavaskar's hundred at Ferozshah Kotla was every bit as courageous as Kim Hughes 100* at the MCG.

The psychological impact left by the Windies players of the 80s (both batsmen as well as bowlers) had to be seen live to be believed. Stats are a mere pointer to their feats.
 

Furball

Evil Scotsman
I feel that Warne's performance in that series, while great, wasn't really his pinnacle. There were really only a couple spells in that series where he threatened to run through England, and weren't enough to win a match for his team.

I actually rate his series against Sri Lanka in 2004, when he took 26 wickets in 3 tests, higher. He was returning after a ban, was facing better players of spin, and was the key player with McGrath absent in winning all 3 games after being behind in each,
They weren't enough to win because the rest of the team didn't stand up. Warne was the difference between a close series and Australia being annihilated 4-1.

And he managed everything while his marriage was falling apart.
 

Top