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Ranking the candidates for best fast/pace bowler ever: The Rankings thread

Himannv

International Coach
Name and shame. Who on earth would rank Hadlee as 17th best? They need to be shunned publicly and their friends and relatives need to be notified of this embarrassment.
 

Logan

U19 Captain
Even though I will not rank Hadlee above Steyn, Hadlee deserves to be in Top 5. I can’t imagine how anyone ranked him 17th. It looks like the top 3 will be Marshall, McGrath and Ambrose.
 
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Burgey

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This ranking is probably fair enough. You're splitting hairs when you get to this level of bowler. Except of course with McGrath, who's head and shoulders above the rest.
 

mr_mister

Cricket Web: All-Time Legend
3rd. Curtly Ambrose (460 points)




Top 5 finishes: 12
Bottom 5 finishes: 0
Highest finish: 1st (1 time)
Lowest finish: 10th (1 time)



The tall menacing West Indian takes the bronze. Ambrose was a powerhouse in the ATG heavy 90s, standing tall above the rest. He ended up taking the most wickets for a paceman that decade and had the best bowling average out of all his peers. His final test stats make for solid reading, an E/R of barely over 2, averaged a tick under 21 and a strike rate of just over 50.

He averaged 21 against Australia and 18 against South Africa, two of the best 90s sides. Included in this was a famous spell of 7/1 against the Aussies on a tour here, where his use of bounce proved unplayable. Against England he was also unstoppable, taking 164 wickets against them at just 18 and had a big hand in keeping their batting weak during this time.

Ambrose also had longevity, and in the year 2000 when he turned 37 he still churned out amazing numbers, taking 36 wickets @ 17.6
 

mr_mister

Cricket Web: All-Time Legend
Glen McGrath (484 points)




Top 5 finishes: 20
Bottom 5 finishes: 0
Highest finish: 1st (3 times)
Lowest finish: 15th (1 time)



Pigeon was a huge part of my childhood, leading our attack for the first 9-10 summers of cricket I watched. I remember being a little bored of him as a kid, with Warne and Lee providing more excitement and flair. But I always took McGrath taking a bag of wickets to be a given and it pretty much was. McGrath still holds the record for most wickets for a paceman though he's soon to lose it to Anderson. Like many players on this list he aged like fine wine, taking 62 wickets at 21 in 2005 when he was on the wrong side of 30. The 2000s were said to be dominated by batsman but none of this fazed McGrath in the slightest.

McGrath had tremendous records against Lara and Tendulkar, the two premier bats of his day. He averaged under 20 against these two nations and generally got the better of their two star players. He gave Michael Atherton nightmares, removing him in the single figures over 10 times and just giving the immediate advantage to Australia in so many ashes matches. This was par for the course for McGrath, who was so consistent with his off stump line and tricky length.

An early breakthrough was all but assured when he bowled for his country and he was a huge part in Australia enjoying one of the most dominant runs of any test side ever. He didn't have the speed but he didn't need it. Great bower and a worthy runner up.
 

mr_mister

Cricket Web: All-Time Legend
1st. Malcolm Marshall (534 points)




Top 5 finishes: 25
Bottom 5 finishes: 0
Highest finish: 1st (14 times)
Lowest finish: 4th (1 time)



The gap between Marshall and McGrath was the equal biggest gap between any two players on this list. That is pretty incredible and makes Marshall indisputably the best ever paceman according to CW. Marshall took 376 wickets from only 81 outings, about 4.5 wickets per test. Very solid considering he was basically sharing wickets with at least 2 other ATG quicks his entire career. Out of the West Indians legends Malcolm comes out on top, despite being the shortest of them all. His bowling was said to be very skiddy and hard to pick up and even though he was a short man he could bowl a bouncer as mean and lethal as any of his tall peers.

Marshall averaged a tick under 21 and had a SR of 46, which is definitely one of the best average and SR combos of anyone on this list, probably only second to old school Sydney Barnes. Marshall brought his A game against all opposition and was so, so consistent. He played test cricket against 5 test nations, his best average against one being 19 and worst a meagre 22.


It's pretty crazy the lowest ranking he received from anyone was 4th and that occurred once. So he made a podium finish on every other list and came first on over half of them. He appears to be universally regarded as the best on this site. Well done Mako.
 

trundler

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There isn't really anything that separates McGrath and Marshall though it was fairly obvious he'd end up #2.
Marshall #1 is well deserved and probably the least contention on this least for me.

Interesting how Ambrose wasn't voted outside the top 10 by anyone but Hadlee and McGrath were. 2 lobotomies are in order.
 
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mr_mister

Cricket Web: All-Time Legend
thanks to everyone who submitted a list and to everyone who gave nice feedback in this thread. It was fun doing it and I'll do a spin bowling one soon
 

TheJediBrah

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There isn't really anything that separates McGrath and Marshall though it was fairly obvious he'd end up #2.
Marshall #1 is well deserved and probably the least contention on this least for me.

Interesting how Ambrose wasn't voted outside the top 10 by anyone but Hadlee and McGrath were. 2 lobotomies are in order.
McGrath = Marshall > Hadlee/Ambrose > the rest
 

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