The great (and meaningless) acts of batting bullying in recent times.

[stephen]

remember when AB took over as keeper for SA and he went ages without scoring a ton as keeper? And then in Ricky Ponting's last game Amla and Smith just absolutely destroyed Australia and everyone knew AB was tonning up the moment he got out there. What a guy

3rd Test, South Africa tour of Australia at Perth, Nov 30 - Dec 3 2012 | Match Summary | ESPNCricinfo

All I remember about that was the sheer brutality of Amla. He looked completely at ease with everything and simply annihilated all before him.

 

[TheJediBrah]

Lara: decided winning was unimportant, and not content with being the previous record holder, decided to to flush his team and the possibility of a win down the toilet and score 400. But complaints about him being self centred from within his team were unjustified.

Is this sarcasm?

 

[GoodAreasShane]

It's overkill, but I'm going to give him a pass on this. AUS hit 550 in both the previous tests, and with this being a series decider they needed to be sure. He scored really fast, and even if most of the heavy lifting had been done, it's still Mitch at the WACA. And he didn't just show up for this match when the going was easy. Amazing series.

Mitch was right in the middle of probably the worst phase of his career at the time though

 

[Prince EWS]

dem lemons

 

[Starfighter]

Alastair Cook 244*

 

[trundler]

Is this sarcasm?

Quite clearly.

 

[TheJediBrah]

Mitch was right in the middle of probably the worst phase of his career at the time though

He was only playing because all 3 of the first choice bowlers were injured as well

Pretty shocking series for Aus tbh. Dominated the first 2 Tests but ended up drawing both due to Rain/SA blocking 5 sessions. Then thrashed in 3rd test with the whole bowling attack unable to play because destroyed themselves trying to bowl SA out in the 4th innings at Adelaide lol. Definitely didn't deserve to lose the series.

 

[Howe_zat]

Alastair Cook and Jonathan Trott gave their fair share of batting bullying between 2011-13 although my poor memory means I can't think of a specific series to pick out.

In 2010 they batted together for a combined 796 deliveries at Brisbane and Adelaide, without a dismissal in between. This caused the Australians to lose the will to live for the remainder of the series iirc

 

[randycricfreak]

Just about everyone has helped themselves to some very free and very unnecessary runs in recent years. Here are some nominations to kick things off

Kallis: averaged 500 in Zimbabwe. More than his average in every other country put together. Because you never know when a series average of under a few hundred will cost you a trophy against the mighty Zim. His average was some 1500% higher than when AUS toured SA, which was fine, cos RSA always won those tours in his time, and didn't really care about winning them anyway.

Hayden: couldn't hack it against a decent pace attack as a fricken opener, but decided to take a leaf from Kallis's book and compensate by scoring 380 against Zim.

Sehwag: ditto the opener comment, so he just decided to score all his runs in Asia where pace was ineffective. Still managed to stink it up at the critical times when a decent pace attack was touring.

Jayawardene: was hopelessly inept in South Africa against decent attacks, so when South Africa sent their worst attack in a century to the flatest of Lankan pitches, he decided to get his revenge by scoring 374, making nearly 50% more runs in a single partnership than he managed on 3 tours of South Africa.

Lara: decided winning was unimportant, and not content with being the previous record holder, decided to to flush his team and the possibility of a win down the toilet and score 400. But complaints about him being self centred from within his team were unjustified.

Feel free to add to the list by bad-mouthing all and sundry, taking care to avoid giving them credit for any other accomplishments in the process.

MAHELA's 374 was against an attack that had Steyn and Ntini

 

[TheJediBrah]

MAHELA's 374 was against an attack that had Steyn and Ntini

It was still probably one of SA's worst attacks tbh. Andrew Hall was the 4th seamer, and Boje bowled 65 overs

 

[OverratedSanity]

Steyn wasnt really the bowler he became later either.

 

[akilana]

He was only playing because all 3 of the first choice bowlers were injured as well

Pretty shocking series for Aus tbh. Dominated the first 2 Tests but ended up drawing both due to Rain/SA blocking 5 sessions. Then thrashed in 3rd test with the whole bowling attack unable to play because destroyed themselves trying to bowl SA out in the 4th innings at Adelaide lol. Definitely didn't deserve to lose the series.

Lol at not deserving to lose. They lost.

 

[Bolo]

Ntini was the most reliable bowler, but he was averaging nearly 40 away.

Steyn was playing his 3rd series, having already been dropped from the team.

I remember chatting to a friend before the series about the odds and he called them zero on account of it being the worst bowling attack we had ever fielded. Not as bad in retrospect, but it's funnier to bust out the hyperbole, and the hyperbole isn't retrospective.

 

[TheJediBrah]

Lol at not deserving to lose. They lost.

ok?

Ntini was the most reliable bowler, but he was averaging nearly 40 away.

Steyn was playing his 3rd series, having already been dropped from the team.

I remember chatting to a friend before the series about the odds and he called them zero on account of it being the worst bowling attack we had ever fielded. Not as bad in retrospect, but it's funnier to bust out the hyperbole, and the hyperbole isn't retrospective.

even in retrospect it's not really hyperbole. SA have consistently had a very strong attack for most of the last 30 years, that tour would easily have been among the worst.

 

[honestbharani]

Sachin sacrificing the Asia Cup for his 100th 100.

 

[TheJediBrah]

Sachin sacrificing the Asia Cup for his 100th 100.

definitely selfish but struggling your way to a slow century isn't really bullying

 

[Starfighter]

Anything scored at Perth in the 2015 Aus vs NZ match. An absolutely horrid pitch.

 

[SillyCowCorner1]

Great-meaningless-batting bully in recent times:

 

[andmark]

In 2010 they batted together for a combined 796 deliveries at Brisbane and Adelaide, without a dismissal in between. This caused the Australians to lose the will to live for the remainder of the series iirc

They could have been one of the ATG batting partners if Trott's health didn't go south. That period, especially the Ashes you mention, was immense.

 

[Burgey]

Gower and Gooch in the 85 Ashes series when Lubo made 200+ was a pretty merciless bullying of a chronically undermanned attack.