Afridi vs Pollard vs Y.Pathan

[Xuhaib]

Irfan is a very decent odi cricketeer who has been unfairly treated.

 

[vcs]

I wonder if Irfan Pathan is, in fact, a better overall batsman than Yusuf Pathan in terms of skill. Certainly at the international level considering a big chunk of competent pace bowling that batsmen have to face. (The closest one got to doing a side-by-side comparison is when India won a T20I against SL on the back of a partnership between these two - they rotated brilliantly, Irfan took the strike against pace and Yusuf murdered spinners).

But when the conditions and bowlers are to his strengths (covers a lot of domestic cricket in India) - Yusuf is a master of the situation fairly consistently, even more than Yuvraj. So when he cashes in, he cashes in and even a couple of overs to his liking are plenty to change the game either 20 or 50 overs. Plus, he is cool under pressure. In that sense he is not over-rated. But only sides with a strong top 6 and a couple of tail enders who can bat - can afford the luxury of having him.

Agree with that. His knocks in SA recently were also an indication that he can work around his weaknesses. Managed to hang in against the pacers while looking completely out of his depth, and hammered Botha to play a big part in winning the 3rd ODI. In the 5th, he just blasted everyone but it was a lost cause as he didn't have anyone for company.

 

[abmk]

Scoring a century...& that too against the DEADLY Indian bowlers of the 90s...WOW,thats amazing...

pretty obvious you didn't watch the match. That was a pretty low-scoring match on a difficult track with bowlers on both sides bowling well. Prasad took 6 wickets for one run in that spell ( including that of Afridi ) IIRC . Wickets fell in a heap once Afridi got out.

P.S. Oh and while the Indian bowling attack was cr*p abroad in the 90s, it wasn't half-bad at home

 

[abmk]

Skill-wise, yusuf and afridi are by some distance better than pollard

 

[Jono]

Yusuf is the greatest 'hack' ever imo

 

[Himannv]

Its just a matter of time before Tendulkar comes up in a thread.

 

[Howe_zat]

Its just a matter of time before Tendulkar comes up in a thread.

The only thing Tendulkar has in common with the Nazis.

(probably)

 

[aaryanth]

Its just a matter of time before Tendulkar comes up in a thread.

K,i've deleted that post.

 

[akilana]

Afridi is so talented that if he wanted, he could have had a reasonably good test career. When woolmer was the pakistani coach, he was doing pretty well, averaging more than 40 and bowling decent. Still 5 hundreds and 8 fifties in a 27 matches career @ 36 isn't too bad.

 

[Jacknife]

Afridi bowled well in the WC and credit is due but I find him incredibly overrated and has actually been poor with the ball for the last year running up to the WC averaging 46.
Does anyone on this board actually rate Pollard and Pathan, I know the commentators try to sell them, but is anyone really fooled by it.

 

[Himannv]

Does anyone on this board actually rate Pollard and Pathan, I know the commentators try to sell them, but is anyone really fooled by it.

Neither of them have a particularly good technique although if you consider the way cricket is developing, thats neither here nor there these days.

 

[Furball]

Yusuf is the greatest 'hack' ever imo

 

[Bun]

Pollard. Has been a total dissappointment in int cricket, in fact compartmentalising himself to t20 seems to be eroding his basic game if the ipl is anyrhing to go by. and pretty much vindicates the theory t20s can never really exist without complementing fc.

Afridi maybe a slogger, but the guy averages 35 with the bat with a few hundreds and is good enough to make the side as a bowler alone now.

Pathan has decent enough FC figures to show he's not a slogger. He isn't a slogger but one who just loves to thwack spinners. His show in SA showed he aint mug on such pitches as well.....

 

[Bun]

Afridi bowled well in the WC and credit is due but I find him incredibly overrated and has actually been poor with the ball for the last year running up to the WC averaging 46.
Does anyone on this board actually rate Pollard and Pathan, I know the commentators try to sell them, but is anyone really fooled by it.

He isn't incredible overrated anywhere maybe except in some fan sites where each time he steps out people expect him to get 40 ball hundreds.

Agreed he had a below par 2010, when he averaged 46 from 18 matches, but you know it's an exception when you look at the years before that. In 07 he avged 33; in 08 about 29 and in 09 too similarly arnd 28. All this with a very good eco rate even in these days of roads as pitches in ODIs, a rate of 4.6 is exceptional! And he avga 23 in 2011 and more importantly showed up in the most imp tournament of them all.

Most teams would kill to have abowler like him in their team atm. He might be a **** up otherwise, but no denying he has become a very good ODI bowler over the last few years.

 

[Blaze 18]

Only batting?

Are we talking about currently or overall? If it's the latter then you'd have to say Afridi for the sheer number of matches he has played as compared to the other two (325 vs 54 vs 41). If it's about who I'd rather have bat for me at this point in time, then Yusuf > Afridi > Pollard.

If we're comparing them as bowlers then it's obviously Afridi > Yusuf = Pollard. Having said that, I do think Afridi does get ever so slightly overrated sometimes when it comes to his exploits as an ODI bowler. He's a good bowler without doubt but best ODI spinner? No, not by some distance IMO. He's not even the best Pakistani spinner. Heck, if we're talking very recent form then even Yuvraj Singh should be in contention. The thing is, it doesn't seem to be really very hard to have figures of 1/45 or 1/50 every other ODI, even if you're only a marginally above average part-timer. Even Mohammad Hafeez manages to do it time and again.

I daresay if Yusuf manages to play anywhere near the number of games Afridi has, he'll end up with similar numbers with both bat and ball (maybe even better those numbers - and to be quite frank, that isn't very hard). The thing with Yusuf is, he knows his limitations very well. He's a fairly limited player and a slogger, yes, but he's ready to grit it out unlike Afridi. And like I said, he'll give you 1/50 or something like that on a fairly regular basis with the ball (if he bowls ten overs that is).

Pollard's is the worst of the three by a reasonable distance and that's mostly got to do with his mindset. Maybe I'm seeing what I want to see, but the Pollard that appeared in Mumbai colours seemed to be much more committed and focused than the one that is currently playing for West Indies.

 

[jeevan]

This thread writes off Pollard as a ****, and he scores a match winning knock

 

[Xuhaib]

Only batting?

Are we talking about currently or overall? If it's the latter then you'd have to say Afridi for the sheer number of matches he has played as compared to the other two (325 vs 54 vs 41). If it's about who I'd rather have bat for me at this point in time, then Yusuf > Afridi > Pollard.

If we're comparing them as bowlers then it's obviously Afridi > Yusuf = Pollard. Having said that, I do think Afridi does get ever so slightly overrated sometimes when it comes to his exploits as an ODI bowler. He's a good bowler without doubt but best ODI spinner? No, not by some distance IMO. He's not even the best Pakistani spinner. Heck, if we're talking very recent form then even Yuvraj Singh should be in contention. The thing is, it doesn't seem to be really very hard to have figures of 1/45 or 1/50 every other ODI, even if you're only a marginally above average part-timer. Even Mohammad Hafeez manages to do it time and again.

I daresay if Yusuf manages to play anywhere near the number of games Afridi has, he'll end up with similar numbers with both bat and ball (maybe even better those numbers - and to be quite frank, that isn't very hard). The thing with Yusuf is, he knows his limitations very well. He's a fairly limited player and a slogger, yes, but he's ready to grit it out unlike Afridi. And like I said, he'll give you 1/50 or something like that on a fairly regular basis with the ball (if he bowls ten overs that is).

Pollard's is the worst of the three by a reasonable distance and that's mostly got to do with his mindset. Maybe I'm seeing what I want to see, but the Pollard that appeared in Mumbai colours seemed to be much more committed and focused than the one that is currently playing for West Indies.

haha...what? Afridi averages about 30 in the 2nd half of his career that about 170 games where he has a similar record to Daniel Vettori one of the best limited overs spinner in the modern game.The issue with Afridi is for the first half of his career he considered himself like many of us a batsman who could fill in some overs.One does not even have to see the numbers just by share game watching you can deduce who is a better bowler.The number of games argument is silly do you believe that Sreesanth will become as good as Dale Steyn just by playing more games.

 

[Blaze 18]

I didn't say Yusuf's a better bowler than Afridi. I agree you can make out Afridi's a much better bowler at the moment just by watching them bowl. I only said Afridi's not the best ODI spinner as he's sometimes made out to be and that even the Yuvrajs and Hafeezs of this world churn out respectable performances every now and again (with the ball).

Sreesanth is a hack and does not merit comparison with Dale Steyn's uncle, let alone Dale Steyn himself. My point re: Yusuf was that there's a very good chance he'll end up with numbers similar to Afridi's, say, five points higher with both bat and ball.

And I may be wrong here, but to the best of my knowledge, Afridi was always a bowler who could bat a bit. I believe Afridi himself acknowledges that.

 

[Xuhaib]

Yuvraj averages 32 over the last 35 games if he can average this for another 100 games then surely why not you can call him one of the best odi spinners as for Hafeez he is a genuine odi spinner would walk in to half the odi sides just on his spin prowess his list A record shows it and he will not make the Pakistan side if he can't bowl.

Afridi is not the best spinners in the world not even close but over the past 6-7 years his record compares to Vettori, Bhajji, Shakib these are guys who are all regarded as some of the top modern day odi spinners, and Pathan will never win you a game with the ball while Afridi chips in with a match winning bowling effort quite regularly,