Best batsman against mediocre bowling

[honestbharani]

I remember thinking it must be hard for a Pak curator in the 90s. When you got peak W & W as well Mushy and Saqlain and a good 3rd seamer in Aaqib Javed and then all rounders who can swing and reverse swing the ball at decent pace like Azhar Mahmood and Abdul Razzaq, you can really end up having no idea what is the right pitch for that attack. Ideally, hard outfield with a slow track where pace through the air matters will be the best bet but boy would it be tempting to layout a green top for W&W or a dustbowl for Mushy and Saqi.

 

[vcs]

Even with that attack, they lost at home a lot in the '90s LOL.

 

[TheJediBrah]

I remember thinking it must be hard for a Pak curator in the 90s. When you got peak W & W as well Mushy and Saqlain and a good 3rd seamer in Aaqib Javed and then all rounders who can swing and reverse swing the ball at decent pace like Azhar Mahmood and Abdul Razzaq, you can really end up having no idea what is the right pitch for that attack. Ideally, hard outfield with a slow track where pace through the air matters will be the best bet but boy would it be tempting to layout a green top for W&W or a dustbowl for Mushy and Saqi.

Or you could, you know, not go out of your way to make a pitch that suits your team

 

[Kirkut]

I remember thinking it must be hard for a Pak curator in the 90s. When you got peak W & W as well Mushy and Saqlain and a good 3rd seamer in Aaqib Javed and then all rounders who can swing and reverse swing the ball at decent pace like Azhar Mahmood and Abdul Razzaq, you can really end up having no idea what is the right pitch for that attack. Ideally, hard outfield with a slow track where pace through the air matters will be the best bet but boy would it be tempting to layout a green top for W&W or a dustbowl for Mushy and Saqi.

Desi curators are not analytical enough to create a perfectly balanced pitch for both pace and spin.

 

[Kirkut]

Besides if you have guys bowling at the speeds Shaoib and Sami could get then curating green tops just brings the other team's pace men into play. Prepare the sort of pitches the aforementioned duo can only blast some life from.

I've noticed that Pak plays it's best cricket against New Zealand and to some extent England, and their bowlers have always enjoyed bowling in NZ. Flat pitches just doesn't suit their cricket because anyways their batsmen are unpredictable at best.

 

[honestbharani]

Or you could, you know, not go out of your way to make a pitch that suits your team

Yes, but no one in the world does that, so............

 

[honestbharani]

Desi curators are not analytical enough to create a perfectly balanced pitch for both pace and spin.

Nah, leaving grass on the SC tracks only ends up making the games boring, past the first day and a half when it can be tough for batting. With the heat and humidity in most places, tracks dry out very fast and then stay true for so long that a result can only happen from a collapse or immense scoreboard pressure. Kinda like some of the NZ pitches of recent years where batting seems to be easiest from days 3 to 5.

 

[TheJediBrah]

Yes, but no one in the world does that, so............

false, most countries do

 

[the big bambino]

@Kirkut. Fair point about their batsmen. The success against NZ in particular could have been reverse swing. Maybe don’t worry so much about the pitch, though I still think flat would be best, just make sure the outfield is rough.

 

[Flem274*]

not sure about the 90s, but in modern nz you wanna huck it full. nz bowlers have dined out on local knowledge for years while tourists with swing bowlers are confused the english length doesn't achieve anything here.

wasim and waqar bowled full so they would have found loads of swing. plus they were really fast and really good and 90s nz openers were not known for being good.

 

[Kirkut]

Nah, leaving grass on the SC tracks only ends up making the games boring, past the first day and a half when it can be tough for batting. With the heat and humidity in most places, tracks dry out very fast and then stay true for so long that a result can only happen from a collapse or immense scoreboard pressure. Kinda like some of the NZ pitches of recent years where batting seems to be easiest from days 3 to 5.

Yes, I guess massive cracks and ball turning square from day 3 is a part of Asian cricket heritage.

 

[Kirkut]

not sure about the 90s, but in modern nz you wanna huck it full. nz bowlers have dined out on local knowledge for years while tourists with swing bowlers are confused the english length doesn't achieve anything here.

wasim and waqar bowled full so they would have found loads of swing. plus they were really fast and really good and 90s nz openers were not known for being good.

The context was mostly based on the old Pak team, the present team is different. Let's see how Naseem Shah turns out.

 

[honestbharani]

Yes, I guess massive cracks and ball turning square from day 3 is a part of Asian cricket heritage.

As much as grass courts are of England, NZ and SA and hard and bouncy zero deviation tracks are in Australia.


But forget the rhetoric, the fact is there is actual evidence that tracks left with grass on end up massively disadvantaging one side and also makes the draw a very probable result. You want a pitch to from a grass court to a dust bowl in 5 days, in what is described as an "ideal pitch" by many. I just don't think it is actually possible anywhere. The percentage of help available to every type of bowling and batsmen cannot ever really be equal.

I actually liked the Mumbai pitch against England in 2016. It was a fast track with good bounce but that also turned. I believe they say its the red soil that gives it the bounce and pace but it definitely encouraged the batsmen and the bowlers to be more positive. I guess that is about the best we can hope for, at least in India. Dharamshala in 2017 was somewhat like that too. Dunno if they had red soil there too.

 

[Moss]

Mohammad Hafeez comes to mind, though a decent player of slow bowling. Martin Guptill's another (at least in the 5 day format), comfortable in tests as long as he was up against Zimbabwe, Bangladesh and (occasionally) Sri Lanka and mostly found out against others. Guppy vs McGrath in tests is something I'm glad we never got to see. Suresh Raina reminded me a little of Hick in terms of his issues against the short ball which affected his test career, but still allowed him a productive ODI one. Yuvraj Singh the test player too, though he played some fantastic knocks in Pakistan,

Brendon McCullum was definitely something of a minnow basher pre-captaincy (or at least, before he became a specialist bat), though it was probably more down to his general decision-making than ability against the better bowlers.

 

[stephen]

Possibly the fairest ground which results in the most results these days is the Adelaide Oval.

 

[Bolo.]

But forget the rhetoric, the fact is there is actual evidence that tracks left with grass on end up massively disadvantaging one side and also makes the draw a very probable result. You want a pitch to from a grass court to a dust bowl in 5 days, in what is described as an "ideal pitch" by many. I just don't think it is actually possible anywhere. The percentage of help available to every type of bowling and batsmen cannot ever really be equal.
.

*You are leaving out the important factor of swing, which varies massively by ground and ball, and pitch prep can do nothing for. If it was hypothetically possible to play on English decks in aus or uae atmospheric conditions with the kookaburra, we would see snoozefest draws.
*
*Anyway, greentop to dustbowl isnt realistically possible. We do see green to dry grass though, which offers enough to both disciplines (some of the indian, rsa and english pitches, and occasionally lankan). And we see dry, hard and fast to breaking up (happens every time a dry,hard pitch is prepared that isnt a road), which is similar.
*
*Anyway, no need for every pitch to be perfectly balanced, both in terms of bat/ball and pace/spin. Variety makes things interesting.
*
*Would be nice to get rid of the one sided advantage that most pitches produce though.

 

[Migara]

*You are leaving out the important factor of swing, which varies massively by ground and ball, and pitch prep can do nothing for. If it was hypothetically possible to play on English decks in aus or uae atmospheric conditions with the kookaburra, we would see snoozefest draws..

You are forgetting one more important thing. Other than for grounds as Pallekele or Nagpur, reverse swing is the important swing in subcontinent. Grassy wicket just simply obliterates it. Since conventional swing is affected by weather conditions, but reverse swing hardly by any thing. Grassy wickets bring out snoozefests in the SC.

 

[SillyCowCorner1]

No votes for Lara yet...which is nice to see.

 

[honestbharani]

I would actually argue Lara is the best batsman I have seen against the toughest bowling or the toughest conditions. Its definitely not cut and dry but for me, he is and I definitely think it is an arguable case.

 

[trundler]

Smith is definitely in that conversation too