Who is a better cricketer overall- Hashim Amla or AB de Villiers?

[srbhkshk]

Made meaningless runs against poor opposition while AB always stepped it up against the best teams

Not so sure about that, he is certainly better than Amla at this, but not particularly great.

 

[harsh.ag]

Love Amla the test batsman, but in ODIs he's way behind AB. His career is almost over and in all the opportunities he's had, he's been disappointing in wcs... Made meaningless runs against poor opposition while AB always stepped it up against the best teams

Doing well in IPL this year. May have a swansong left in him. But then again, IPL is meaningless, so

 

[vcs]

Doing well in IPL this year. May have a swansong left in him. But then again, IPL is meaningless, so

At least it staves off the concerns that he might be done/his eye might have gone etc. Hope he still has a couple of good years left in him.

 

[akilana]

Not so sure about that, he is certainly better than Amla at this, but not particularly great.

What are you smoking?

 

[akilana]

I don't rate Amla very highly in ODIs because I have the feeling he does really well in SA against everyone but is Duminisque away from home even in bilateral series. But his WC record is pretty similar to Virat Kohli. Kohli bombed in WCs and greatness is already bestowed upon him.

 

[srbhkshk]

What are you smoking?

Batting records | One-Day Internationals | Cricinfo Statsguru | ESPN Cricinfo

Of his top 5 ODI world cup scores, (4 hundreds and 1 99), 3 have come against the mighty West Indies, 1 against the unstoppable Netherlands, and 1 against the Desert Kings UAE.

Averages 29 in T20 world cups and 2 of the 4 50+ scores have come against Scotland/Afghanistan.

IDK man, maybe I am just high, but doesn't seem like legendary performance in pressure games to me.

 

[Burner]

The chokers tag is a blight on the SA team. The deeper they get into the tournament the more they know that they are one simple mistake away from justifying their C-tag. Kind of like a self-fulfilling prophecy. I remember in the Semis against NZ last WC, AB missing a regulation run out chance that he'll make 10 times out of 11.

 

[OverratedSanity]

Batting records | One-Day Internationals | Cricinfo Statsguru | ESPN Cricinfo

Of his top 5 ODI world cup scores, (4 hundreds and 1 99), 3 have come against the mighty West Indies, 1 against the unstoppable Netherlands, and 1 against the Desert Kings UAE.

Averages 29 in T20 world cups and 2 of the 4 50+ scores have come against Scotland/Afghanistan.

IDK man, maybe I am just high, but doesn't seem like legendary performance in pressure games to me.

Taking the top 5 scores is very disingenuous. I'd say if you took the top 5 scores for someone like Sachin it'd be similar.

 

[indiaholic]

What were his other good innings? Apart from the 60 against NZ

 

[OverratedSanity]

What were his other good innings? Apart from the 60 against NZ

Had a great 90 against Australia in the 07 wc, I think. Got runs vs India in the big run chase in 2011 vs Pak and NZ in 2015. It's not a glittering array of great innings or anything but he's had a few very good ones.

 

[indiaholic]

Somehow have no memory for the Australia 90. Will check it out.

 

[vcs]

Was that the one where Watson ran him out with a direct hit from the boundary?

 

[OverratedSanity]

Yep. Him and Smith were going great guns. All fell apart after that runout.

And Kallis played his usual slow poke innings WAC

 

[Bijed]

Batting records | One-Day Internationals | Cricinfo Statsguru | ESPN Cricinfo

Of his top 5 ODI world cup scores, (4 hundreds and 1 99), 3 have come against the mighty West Indies, 1 against the unstoppable Netherlands, and 1 against the Desert Kings UAE.

Averages 29 in T20 world cups and 2 of the 4 50+ scores have come against Scotland/Afghanistan.

IDK man, maybe I am just high, but doesn't seem like legendary performance in pressure games to me.

Somewhat agree with OS re your methodology as you'd expect a correlation between higher performance and facing markedly weaker opposition. There's also a number of very good innings in there against stronger opposition.

That said I also somewhat agree with you in that I don't think that he's a shining example of stepping up in the big situations, though tbf he's probably better than most.

Edit: Actually, thinking about it the sample size for World Cup ODI innings is always going to be relatively small for any given player, so De Villiers' record is probably more than adequate in this regard

 

[srbhkshk]

Taking the top 5 scores is very disingenuous. I'd say if you took the top 5 scores for someone like Sachin it'd be similar.

Actually, Sachin's split is 3 - 3 against Minnows / Stronger teams (100s), for his 80+ scores, it's a bit skewed towards the stronger teams actually (2 of them in extremely high pressure games against Pak.)

Anyway, I'm not saying ABD is bad, it's not as if 5 hundreds are easy to score, and 67/117 are mind-boggling figures, it's just that he has "not always stepped it up" if I was to use your words, in terms of great performances against strong teams in pressure games, he is good, but other players have been similar/better. IDK why people would question my sanity just for that.

 

[OverratedSanity]

I was obviously saying that relative to Amla.

 

[StephenZA]

It's amazing how no player in a SA team has ever stepped up and won a crunch game for SA... considering we are known for 'choking' and have only won 1 knock out game. Thus all SA players must not be as good as players who have won WC's. Maybe Klusener... but then he choked under pressure?

 

[srbhkshk]

I was obviously saying that relative to Amla.

How is "always" , relative to Amla?

 

[Red]

Dunno if this is as clean cut as that. Amla has been an outstanding opening batsman in ODIs, and is among the best of all time as an opener.

FWIW I wasnt saying Amla is better than DeVilliers in ODIs at all. AB might be the second best ODI bat of all time. Was just saying I dont think that Amla should be dismissed easily.

Evidently his record is poor in big games so I am willing to be corrected.

 

[akilana]

Actually, Sachin's split is 3 - 3 against Minnows / Stronger teams (100s), for his 80+ scores, it's a bit skewed towards the stronger teams actually (2 of them in extremely high pressure games against Pak.)

Anyway, I'm not saying ABD is bad, it's not as if 5 hundreds are easy to score, and 67/117 are mind-boggling figures, it's just that he has "not always stepped it up" if I was to use your words, in terms of great performances against strong teams in pressure games, he is good, but other players have been similar/better. IDK why people would question my sanity just for that.

So which player always stepped up? Can't think of anybody. Sachin played countless numbers of knockout matches, 2 WC finals and 2 champions trophy finals. He flopped in those finals and has a middling record in other knockout matches. The more knockout matches you play, better the chances you can come off good.