Best batsman against mediocre bowling

[Migara]

Steve Waugh

 

[vcs]

Kallis

 

[Prince EWS]

For some reason, Sehwag and Hayden come to mind first up when i think of players tonking military medium.

Hmm, they weren't really great against it when the conditions suited the bowlers though. I think the Mack Daddy of mediocre bowling should probably slay it even when the conditions are against them.

I think I'm gonna go with Kallis.

 

[Migara]

Hmm, they weren't really great against it when the conditions suited the bowlers though. I think the Mack Daddy of mediocre bowling should probably slay it even when the conditions are against them.

I think I'm gonna go with Kallis.

Shewag was good even on absolute dustbowls. He may have been suspect against pace, but against spin, on the worst of the wickets, he is gold.

 

[Prince EWS]

Shewag was good even on absolute dustbowls. He may have been suspect against pace, but against spin, on the worst of the wickets, he is gold.

Yeah but I reckon most SuperSport Series bowers would've had him in trouble on a slightly-more-bowler-friendly than average Saffa pitch. I actually don't think he was that suspect against "pace"; I think he was suspect against swing and swing movement from accurate bowlers, which would make some ostensibly medicore bowlers effective against him.

 

[Migara]

Yeah but I reckon most SuperSport Series bowers would've had him in trouble on a slightly-more-bowler-friendly than average Saffa pitch. I actually don't think he was that suspect against "pace"; I think he was suspect against swing and swing movement from accurate bowlers, which would make some ostensibly medicore bowlers effective against him.

Half of the test batsmen will struggle against usual FC Sri Lankan spinners on Lankan pitches. Issue here is, Shewag is not a player who can score against mediocre military medium or filthy darts. He dominates quality spin in any form, any era on any pitch with ease. That is not a qualification even the best of batsmen can boast of.

 

[Prince EWS]

Issue here is, Shewag is not a player who can score against mediocre military medium or filthy darts.

Well yeah, that's my point.

The purpose of this thread is to find such a player.

Sehwag: no.

 

[subshakerz]

The problem is that Sehwag, Lara, and Warner are all capable of taking on high quality attacks as well.

I would go for Mohammad Yousuf. The ultimate soft attack bully.

 

[Victor Ian]

Michael bevan?

 

[Malcolm]

Is it a negative thing to be the best against mediocre attacks?

Kallis is the one that sprung to my mind when I saw the thread.

 

[morgieb]

Is it a negative thing to be the best against mediocre attacks?

Kallis is the one that sprung to my mind when I saw the thread.

If they can't produce against the best attacks then yes. Otherwise not really.

 

[srbhkshk]

I guess Ganguly is probably not the first name who comes to mind, but he could also be quite a murderer if the opposition pacers weren't up to it.

 

[vcs]

Kallis and Ponting were both ruthless against slightly less than top-shelf pace bowling in different ways, Kallis probably a bit more consistent but his method was to absolutely grind attacks down to the dust, while Ponting would just murder them.

 

[tony p]

Graeme Hick & Mark Ramprakash.

Both with 100 first class centuries, but both given numerous opportunities at Test Level and failed on the whole.

Against mediocre county bowling they were giants.

 

[Kirkut]

Kallis and Sangakkara are popular choices, but neither can make the most of ordinary bowling on flat pitches and score a 100 in a session like Warner or Sehwag.

Edit: Having said that even if Kallis and Sanga cannot score a 100 in a session, both were better players of fast bowling compared to Sehwag.

 

[Kirkut]

Is it a negative thing to be the best against mediocre attacks?

Kallis is the one that sprung to my mind when I saw the thread.

Definitely not! That is the point of this thread!

This thread is mostly about batsmen who can completely capitalize on loose bowling in batting friendly conditions by dealing in boundaries. Someone like Pujara may not make the cut who may still leave medium paced deliveries on a good length 3 feet outside off stump.

 

[Prince EWS]

Kallis and Sangakkara are popular choices, but neither can make the most of ordinary bowling on flat pitches and score a 100 in a session like Warner or Sehwag.

I think it depends of whether you're asking whether a batsman can capitalise on the weak link of an decent attack, or reliably average an absolutely stupid amount against an attack comprised of weak bowlers.

IMO, if your attack is **** as a captain, you'd actually rather Sehwag or Warner or maybe even Lara in the opposition then Sanga or Kallis, because the latter two are almost literally Bradman against **** ****s in Test cricket. If you have one or two **** bowlers and they're on to bowl it may be a different answer though.

From where I stand, if something is designated as a Test but your attack is poor, the worst player (in my lifetime at least) to have in the opposition is Kallis. He's much more likely to ton up than not in that scenario, and a player that's more likely to ton up than not is an absolutely disaster as a fielding captain.

 

[mr_mister]

Graeme Hick & Mark Ramprakash.

Both with 100 first class centuries, but both given numerous opportunities at Test Level and failed on the whole.

Against mediocre county bowling they were giants.

The thing with Ramprakash though is that his best test form came in 1998 when he played series against WI, SA, and Aus. Averaged 48 from 13 matches that year with nearly 1000 runs

And outside of this year his best test innings was his ton in the '01 ashes.

So it seems he could deal with high quality bowling well enough at times. For whatever reason against the lesser attacks of NZ, India and Zimbabwe he did very very little

 

[vcs]

If we bring ODIs into the picture, absolutely no one I've ever seen plunders mediocre bowling with the consistency of Kohli. His numbers against WI over the last few years are Bradman-esque.

 

[morgieb]

If we bring ODIs into the picture, absolutely no one I've ever seen plunders mediocre bowling with the consistency of Kohli. His numbers against WI over the last few years are Bradman-esque.

Though his average against the WIndies admittedly isn't great at Tests, Kohli feels like a plunderer of poor attacks at Test level too. So is Smith.