Vernon Philander retires

[Slifer]

I'm not sure we've ever seen it tbh. What we saw was Steyn steaming in and Philander trundling in but bowling unplayable deliveries and getting good/great batsmen out.

I thoroughly endorse hb's post. That's a great way to put it. Bowling in helpful conditions is obviously more difficult than bowling in unhelpful conditions and we should take into account when analysing his career, but at home he outbowled one of the ten greatest bowlers of all time in the same matches, and away he averaged a better than respectable 28.

We can talk about how he was a home track hero all we like but when you only play about 53% of your matches at home and still average 22 you're either the best home bowler of all time or you were pretty good everywhere. For Philander I think it was actually somewhere in between those two things, and that's not bad for someone almost everyone who had seen him bowl had vast reservations about, and he certainly proved he should have debuted a least a couple of seasons earlier given he'd been doing the same thing in four-day cricket for years.

He was a true great of the game whose accuracy and skill moving the ball gave me many toldyouso moments and even more cricketporn moments. He will be missed, and may Michael Holding eat a bag of dicks for his commentary over the years of this sombre day.

I'm lost. What exactly did Holding say about Vernon?

 

[a massive zebra]

Bowling in helpful conditions is obviously more difficult than bowling in unhelpful conditions

What?

 

[Gnske]

It says me, PEWS, *****, and 2 others like this. When I click on the two others it says ***** and SeamUp. It seems like ***** has found a way to give even more likes... by liking the same post twice.

He does this often, just block him and it fixes the issue.

 

[BoyBrumby]

The last remaining true fatty. Gun bowler.

He absolutely was a master craftsman of his trade (and always seems a thumping good chap to boot) but I think Rahkeem Cornwall will keep the salad-avoiders flame alight for a while at least.

 

[quincywagstaff]

It's underrated how good he was on home pitches that offered a bit with the new ball. So often you see even quality pace bowlers bowl too short in such circumstances but Philander was a master of bowling the right length.

Took over 100 wickets at under 20 in home Tests; very few bowlers have done that I reckon (Muralitharan only one I could find so far).

 

[Coronis]

It's underrated how good he was on home pitches that offered a bit with the new ball. So often you see even quality pace bowlers bowl too short in such circumstances but Philander was a master of bowling the right length.

Took over 100 wickets at under 20 in home Tests; very few bowlers have done that I reckon (Muralitharan only one I could find so far).

Laker, Rabada, Imran and Lock also managed this. Trueman and Marshall very close as well.

 

[h_hurricane]

Laker, Rabada, Imran and Lock also managed this. Trueman and Marshall very close as well.

Just to add to it, Garner had a sub 20 average away from home ! Don't think any other post 2nd world war cricketer managed to do that over a reasonable time frame.

 

[mr_mister]

The last remaining true fatty. Gun bowler.

Theres this guy called Cornwall

 

[SillyCowCorner1]

Congrats to the big bloke on a terrific career. Always a pleasure to watch him bowl.

Ohhhh my.

 

[SillyCowCorner1]

He absolutely was a master craftsman of his trade (and always seems a thumping good chap to boot) but I think Rahkeem Cornwall will keep the salad-avoiders flame alight for a while at least.

FYI, Rahkeem's diet now is primarily salad oriented. He's been working with his own dietician for the last 2-3 years, as per CWI.

 

[Dendarii]

Steyn was injured for most of his 30s and didn’t Morkel lose his place in the team

My point was that Morkel and Steyn with longer careers didn't make to 100 matches, so I didn't think it was likely that Philander would have done had he remained fit. But maybe mentioning them didn't really work.

However, I have found a list of test matches played by South Africa, and if Philander had played in every match since his debut he would only have got to 77 tests. So it wasn't a lack of fitness that prevented him from reaching 100 tests.

 

[trundler]

Probably the greatest pace bowling #hero of the 21st century alongside Wagner and McGrath. What's not to love about someone rolling over sides at sub 100 regularly while disproving basically every fast bowling meme around. Also, will he live up to his name by Philandering on SA with a Kolpak deal?*


*Not sure I used that right, just wanted to get that joke in. Get ****ed, Bijed.

 

[Prince EWS]

What?

Haha you knew what I meant.

 

[vcs]

Was brilliant between his debut to 2015 and unplayable at times in SA. Very useful lower order batsman too. Very comparable to Ashwin in many ways.

 

[Flem274*]

Philander is 10 times better away from home than ashwin

 

[honestbharani]

Should not derail a Vernon thread but that is just not true.

 

[RossTaylorsBox]

Yeah he's only 5 times as good.

 

[stephen]

My point was that Morkel and Steyn with longer careers didn't make to 100 matches, so I didn't think it was likely that Philander would have done had he remained fit. But maybe mentioning them didn't really work.

However, I have found a list of test matches played by South Africa, and if Philander had played in every match since his debut he would only have got to 77 tests. So it wasn't a lack of fitness that prevented him from reaching 100 tests.

With better fitness he'd have played more at the tail end of his career and would possibly have been picked earlier though. It may have been an exaggeration to say that he could have played 100 tests with better fitness but I don't think he'd have been far off. Another 3 years plus a few of the many he missed due to injury and he'd have been close to 100.

 

[Bolo.]

Pretty amazing career. For a short, fat, unfit trundler to average 22 over nearly a decade is almost unthinkable. That is a lot of handicaps to overcome. In a sense, the most skillful bowler I have ever seen.

 

[honestbharani]

The way he set up and got Kohli out in the second innings of that first test, when we were not having that big a chase, was amazing. Without Vern, I think we would have won that series. And SL did win when he was not there.