The Best at their Best

[subshakerz]

kevin pietersen's 2012 was good fun where he casually smashed 3 atg knocks in amongst a load of nonsense

151 v sl at colombo. striking at 91 on a turner v herath where the top rr for an innings was 3.01. bonkers innings.
149 v sa at headingley, swatting steyn and morkel off the back foot like they were club bowlers. that look on steyn's face when kp casually smoked him over his head for 6, lol.
and then the pièce de résistance where he just he just casually takes out the fact he's playing on a bunsen vs ashwin, harby and ojha and demolishes them for 186. on a pitch where panesar and swann (admittedly a solid and great finger spinner) ran riot.

he wasn't a consistent great but his ceiling was other than lara the highest i've seen.

That 186 would be marginally his best, an unbelievable knock and sealed an important victory.

 

[Bijed]

That 2019 series was just crazy though. I've never seen a more dominant display in a series by any batsman before (though Pujara 2018/19 comes close).

Cook in 10/11? Although tbf there was a bigger gap between Smith and his teammates (only Labuschagne did well) than there was for Cook if that's what you're basing it off

kevin pietersen's 2012 was good fun where he casually smashed 3 atg knocks in amongst a load of nonsense

151 v sl at colombo. striking at 91 on a turner v herath where the top rr for an innings was 3.01. bonkers innings.
149 v sa at headingley, swatting steyn and morkel off the back foot like they were club bowlers. that look on steyn's face when kp casually smoked him over his head for 6, lol.
and then the pièce de résistance where he just he just casually takes out the fact he's playing on a bunsen vs ashwin, harby and ojha and demolishes them for 186. on a pitch where panesar and swann (admittedly a solid and great finger spinner) ran riot.

he wasn't a consistent great but his ceiling was other than lara the highest i've seen.

Yeah, the description of KP as 'Not a great player, but a player of great innings' is actually bang on imo

 

[Starfighter]

Cook in 10/11? Although tbf there was a bigger gap between Smith and his teammates (only Labuschagne did well) than there was for Cook if that's what you're basing it off Yeah, the description of KP as 'Not a great player, but a player of great innings' is actually bang on imo

Cook scored a similar number of runs in easier conditions, was certainly up there though, his Brisbane innings in particular.

Michael Clarke pulled out some extraordinary innings in 2012. Treating Morne Morkel like a grade bowler in Brisbane a highlight.

While hardly as dominant as some of the batting performances here, Brad Haddin in 2013/14 was extraordinary in the way he played important, even decisive innings every match.

 

[trundler]

Someone do a write up about Younis Khan's double at Lord's and 173* at Pallekele

 

[AndrewB]

Cook in 10/11? Although tbf there was a bigger gap between Smith and his teammates (only Labuschagne did well) than there was for Cook if that's what you're basing it off

On that criterion, Lara in 1998-9 must rank pretty high: he averaged 91, second was Campbell at 28.

 

[subshakerz]

Someone do a write up about Younis Khan's double at Lord's and 173* at Pallekele

Both great knocks but his defining knock would be his 267 against India which was a high pressure match I feel.

 

[ImpatientLime]

Cook scored a similar number of runs in easier conditions, was certainly up there though, his Brisbane innings in particular.

Michael Clarke pulled out some extraordinary innings in 2012. Treating Morne Morkel like a grade bowler in Brisbane a highlight.

While hardly as dominant as some of the batting performances here, Brad Haddin in 2013/14 was extraordinary in the way he played important, even decisive innings every match.

wasn't the 10/11 season notoriously wet resulting in greener than usual pitches? its one of the reasons why anderson was so dangerous on that tour.

 

[morgieb]

wasn't the 10/11 season notoriously wet resulting in greener than usual pitches? its one of the reasons why anderson was so dangerous on that tour.

I don't think the pitches themselves were any greener (other than Day 1 MCG), cloudier perhaps.

 

[TheJediBrah]

I don't think the pitches themselves were any greener (other than Day 1 MCG), cloudier perhaps.

Precisely. For an Aus Ashes, throughout the series Australia just batted a lot worse than usual and England bowled a lot better than usual.

 

[Shady Slim]

Cook scored a similar number of runs in easier conditions, was certainly up there though, his Brisbane innings in particular.

Michael Clarke pulled out some extraordinary innings in 2012. Treating Morne Morkel like a grade bowler in Brisbane a highlight.

While hardly as dominant as some of the batting performances here, Brad Haddin in 2013/14 was extraordinary in the way he played important, even decisive innings every match.

probably less so here given most of us seem to have a decent grasp of cricket and how it works (lie tbh, only like, five people do on the entire forum) but while the johnson heroics deservedly get a lot of run and are the most memorable, we could have just as easily lost that series even with all of johnson’s fireworks if haddin was like, 75% of what we got from him. magnum opus.

 

[stephen]

Thanks guys, I'd spent a decade self medicating with alcohol to forget Cook in the 10/11 Ashes and you guys go and dredge it up again.

Clarke in his golden year (around 2012) was something else. Made huge tons for fun.

Amla in around 2012 was utterly insane. The way he took Johnson apart at the WACA was unprecedented.

Lara in 1992/93 at Sydney was one of the biggest moments of despair in my cricketing recollection. Australia went into that test with a decent chance of finally winning a series against the Windies and then this kid came out of nowhere to completely grind us into the dust.

Hayden and Ponting had a good five seasons or so in a row where they would constantly have Australia 1/350 before tea.

The 06/07 series was a real treat. A complete clinical dismantling of the old foe. The personal highlight was Symonds' and Hayden's partnership at the MCG. You could see the pure joy that they had when Symonds got his hundred.

There was a WIndies tour at the end of the 80s when I was just a wee tyke that I remember. Mostly because they completely destroyed Australia and dominated in a way which made them look completely invincible.

And yet Johnson's Ashes is probably the best fast bowling performance I've ever witnessed. He was lethal and utterly ruined the English side. The next summer he came back and broke Sangakkara's wrist and retired another batsman hurt as well. It was brutal to watch.

 

[stephen]

probably less so here given most of us seem to have a decent grasp of cricket and how it works (lie tbh, only like, five people do on the entire forum) but while the johnson heroics deservedly get a lot of run and are the most memorable, we could have just as easily lost that series even with all of johnson’s fireworks if haddin was like, 75% of what we got from him. magnum opus.

He and Hussey saved our bacon quite a few times that series. Haddin is probably one of the most underrated keeper-batsmen out there. The fact that he followed on from Gilchrist and did so well enough that people barely noticed is testament to how good he was.

 

[Red]

He and Hussey saved our bacon quite a few times that series. Haddin is probably one of the most underrated keeper-batsmen out there. The fact that he followed on from Gilchrist and did so well enough that people barely noticed is testament to how good he was.

I always thought his keeping could be sloppy at times, but for a long period he was in the top 6 bats in the country, and could've been picked on batting alone.

 

[Slifer]

I have always had difficulty in deciding Sachin best innings between Perth 92, Chennai 98 and Chennai 99.

Imo Sachins best knock was the 136 in a 4th innings vs Pakistan.

 

[TheJediBrah]

I always thought his keeping could be sloppy at times, but for a long period he was in the top 6 bats in the country, and could've been picked on batting alone.

I reckon Haddin peaked before Gilchrist retired and played most of his Test cricket when he was already well on the decline. He'd be rated much more highly had he played from 2000-2010ish rather than 2008-2015 as he did

 

[stephen]

Keepers tend to be better at keeping (i.e. make less mistakes) before they hit 30.

Haddin was unlucky to not play much at all before he hit 30.

 

[smash84]

Viv Richard's performances against Pak in 1980-81 Test series.

As far as batsmen are concerned - to me - it is about a couple of things - performing against a great attack, and thriving in conditions where rest of one's teammates have wilted away
Blanket stats like for example average against Aus in Aus etc. don't mean much to me unless I know what the exact conditions were & who the individuals were in the opposition.
For example, if we compare Viv Richard's first Test series in Australia in 1975-76 with his last Test series in Australia in 1988-89.
On paper, Viv scored 426 runs @ average of 39 in 1975-76, and 446 runs @ average of 56 in 1988-89.
Although on paper Viv's performance in 88-89 Aus series was much better, to me there is no comparison.
I'd put his performance in 75-76 series (particularly in the last 4 Test matches of the series) way above his 88-89 series, simply because batting was far tougher for West Indies in 75-76.
In his last 4 Test matches of the 75-76 series, against Lillee & Thommo in their prime, Viv scored 402 runs @ average of 50.25 and at a strike rate of 80 runs per 100 balls (unheard of - in those days).
In those 4 matches, he scored nearly 100 runs more than the next best batsman. And that was just the second away Test tour of Viv's career.

Coming to Viv's 80-81 Test series against Pak, few things stand out. West Indies innings total never reached 300 in the entire series.
Viv scored 364 runs at an average of 73. Next best batting average was tailender Sylvester Clarke with avg of 34.
No other West Indian batsman averaged above 30.

These figures however do not do justice to the visual impact of Viv's performances, especially in Multan Test.
Imran tore through the West Indian top order, but Viv just went after him. It was incredible watching a great batsman going after a great fast bowler in Test match cricket.
Viv went on to score an unbeaten 120, next highest score was Larry Gomes who chipped in with 30+ runs.

In Faisalabad, Viv scored twin 50s in both the innings while, none of his teammates (and practically the entire opposition too) crossed 50 in both the innings.

As far as West Indian batting was concerned, Viv was the only reason West Indies squeezed through that series with Pak.

Peak Viv was really something else against top quality fast bowling wasn't he?

 

[stephen]

Peak Viv was really something else against top quality fast bowling wasn't he?

Think about the guys he used to face in the nets, without a helmet.

 

[bagapath]

Maybe so, but I remembered a cricinfo article:



Loads of things are a both/and proposition. For example, no-one disputed that Australia batted crummily regardless of the pitch (though the last 8 wickets were taken on a drying pitch after rain).

As for the other bowlers, the opinions of the article (including cricket's Mr Opinion of the 50s):



Not all spin bowlers are equal, as we've seen in India and Sri Lanka whether or not they were doctoring their pitches (Certainly, S.Africa couldn't have had too many complains the last time they toured). Johnson only took five wickets in a match 4 times in 45 tests, and Benaud was playing in his 22nd test at that point and had taken five in a match only twice: in his next 41 tests he would do so 22 times (I think he spent a long part of his early career 'finding' his bowling, being somewhat more preferred for batting). So Laker was the only one to exploit the conditions and to amazing effect, but that doesn't mean other aspects are beyond consideration.

Johnson was also known for his diplomacy, part of the reason he was chosen as captain of Australia. In a Jack Fingleton book, he unintentionally comes off as kind of an idiot with regards to the chucking controversy (although he anticipated the 'everyone does it' brigade by about forty years) but his approach fitted in with his character.

Unfortunately, this is the only copy I could find of the picture of the pitch being swept before Australia's 1st innings:

However, Pathe have footage that although showing none of the wickets, does show part of Australia's 2nd inns in a resolution high enough to actually see the ball (although their cameraman could have done with a few tips on appropriate use of the zoom):

This being Pathe, they only show two of the ten wickets in their finished newsreel.

I don't know if zoom lenses were available then.

 

[bagapath]

Imran as a bowler in the 1982 home series against India

Botham as an allrounder in the 1981 Ashes in England

Those are true peak performances