Is the Era of the Genuine Rabbit Dead?

[Furball]

Yeah; Matthew Hoggard is probably the archetype for the modern bunny. He had virtually no batting ability of any kind but he put an extremely high price on his wicket and clearly worked pretty hard on his defensive technique to a point where he was far more useful as a tailender than someone like Harmison, who clearly had some basic batting ability but batted like a traditional tail-ender.

Harmison has his uses as well though. Hoggard is useful to hold up an end if there's a set batsman at the other end. A tailender like Harmison is far more useful when all the batsmen are out.

 

[GIMH]

Hoggard regressed alarmingly with the bat in his last couple of years in the side

 

[kyear2]

Some comms would call the properly dire tailend charlies (Devon Malcolm, etc) "ferrets" as in "they go in after the rabbits".

Love that, never heard that one before.

 

[Cricketismylife]

Harmison has his uses as well though. Hoggard is useful to hold up an end if there's a set batsman at the other end. A tailender like Harmison is far more useful when all the batsmen are out.

Exactly. I'd still take Harmison over Hoggard though personally. Though Harmison had the strange habit of missing straight balls.

 

[grecian]

Some comms would call the properly dire tailend charlies (Devon Malcolm, etc) "ferrets" as in "they go in after the rabbits".

I was there, when Devon Malcolm scored his highest first-class score. Didn't middle one, but it was quite annoyingly funny.

 

[Goughy]

In England I think a lot has to do with the move to 4 day FC cricket. There are other reasons of course but the extended game has meant that tail end runs can be important. In the only 3 day game tailenders may not get a bat due to frequent declarations or be told to thrash around to add quick runs. No one wanted to see 10 and 11 occupy the crease as time was important to get a result.

 

[Expressway76]

Now there is a properly gash tailender.

Would imagine he's slipped quite a long way back in the Oz seam pecking order now, so his chances to display that bravura lack of talent on the international stage are sadly limited.

A FC average of 3.83 and a HS of 22 in 40 matches. Makes Tuffers look like Bradman tbh.

 

[Arjun]

Not a single Indian in the list of contenders. Strange, given how hollow India's bottom five really is. Anybody not named Ashwin, Dhoni or Jadeja may qualify.