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Donald/Pollock vs Steyn/Philander (Tests)

Which was the better modern SA new ball Test partnership?

  • Steyn/Philander

  • Donald/Pollock

Results are only viewable after voting.
subshakerz

subshakerz

Cricket Web: All-Time Legend
Chin Music said:
To make it simple, I prefer the Donald/Pollock combo considerably away from helpful seam bowling surfaces. Pollock was a much better bowler than Philander in such circumstances that I would want that combo, regardless of how good Steyn was. I give Steyn a slight edge over Donald but there is too big a difference between the Pollock of pre 2001 and the best of Philander.
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On seaming decks I actually prefer Philander.
 
Chin Music

Chin Music

State Captain
subshakerz said:
On seaming decks I actually prefer Philander.
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The thing I will say against that is that I think Pollock/Donald largely had superior batting lineups to play against than what Philander did, especially in the last few years against that. Sure he usually cashed in on those surfaces but he often had some very ordinary players he was up against in comparison.
 
subshakerz

subshakerz

Cricket Web: All-Time Legend
Chin Music said:
The thing I will say against that is that I think Pollock/Donald largely had superior batting lineups to play against than what Philander did, especially in the last few years against that. Sure he usually cashed in on those surfaces but he often had some very ordinary players he was up against in comparison.
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Pollock didn't really run rampant on those seaming decks the way Philander did, especially in his early years, and then in spells like Lords 2012 and Hobart 2016.
 
Prince EWS

Prince EWS

Global Moderator
I shockingly have pretty normal opinions on these players aside from Donald who I think is very over-rated. I think it's basically just Donald that is making me vote weirdly. I might rate Philander slightly higher than average but nothing in the shortpitched league; I mostly just agree with subs on that one I think.
 
shortpitched713

shortpitched713

Cricketer Of The Year
Prince EWS said:
I shockingly have pretty normal opinions on these players aside from Donald who I think is very over-rated. I think it's basically just Donald that is making me vote weirdly. I might rate Philander slightly higher than average but nothing in the shortpitched league; I mostly just agree with subs on that one I think.
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This comparison is kind of unfair on Donald, as it's excluding the early years of his career.

However, looking at the actual stats, he is being helped the least, by having a quality seam bowling partner. The other 3 seem to have a significant boost by partnering with a real one.

My guess as to why that's the case, is from the many clips I've seen of Donald, his approach and aggression are always at a 10. And in that case, he's not really using the pressure from the other end to let the batsmen get themselves out as much.
 
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subshakerz

subshakerz

Cricket Web: All-Time Legend
Prince EWS said:
I shockingly have pretty normal opinions on these players aside from Donald who I think is very over-rated. I think it's basically just Donald that is making me vote weirdly. I might rate Philander slightly higher than average but nothing in the shortpitched league; I mostly just agree with subs on that one I think.
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Interesting. I think Donald is slightly overrated on this forum too. What are your reasons?
 
shortpitched713

shortpitched713

Cricketer Of The Year
Prince EWS said:
I might rate Philander slightly higher than average but nothing in the shortpitched league; I mostly just agree with subs on that one I think.
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I also rate Philander the least out of these 4 bowlers, in case people were wondering. I'm asking how good the partnerships were though, not how great each were as individuals.
 
Kenneth Viljoen

Kenneth Viljoen

International Regular
Donald and Pollock never won a series in England and Australia our two biggest rivals , Steyn and Philander did on multiple occasions.. and Philander played a big role in beating Australia for the first time since 1970 at home ..Only real blip was neither Philander or Steyn could help beat England at home..For those reasons I'd go with Steyn and Philander as a better partnership ..
 
shortpitched713

shortpitched713

Cricketer Of The Year
Thank you @Kenneth Viljoen , for also directly addressing the actual question of the thread. People are just comparing them as bowlers, where the stats are anyway comparable.

When it comes to the actual accomplishments they brought about, it's actually somewhat one sided.
 
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