Muttiah Muralidaran's 10 top batsmen

[silentstriker]

It's my substitute for lotion.

 

[Shri]

More like loltion.

 

[silentstriker]

2/10

 

[Shri]

Yo wanna see a 10/10? I will show you a 10/10:

CricSim - View Profile: silentstriker

 

[silentstriker]

That whole site is 1/10.

 

[slowfinger]

Tbh I'm surprised Salim Malik is on the list and not KP.

Btw, .357 Yah

 

[Lostman]

This will sound biased but I'm a bit surprised not to see Fleming on the list. In test cricket Fleming pwnd Sri Lanka.

I remember watching Flemings innings of 274*.
He was bit lucky in that innings, there were 3-4 really close LBW shouts off Murali. Mahela might have dropped one at slip as well, not 100% sure though.

Which brings backs to Jono' initial point of how Murali saw and rated his opponents.
No statsguru search is going to show the LBW's and bat/pads that he felt he got robbed on.

 

[smash84]

Tbh I'm surprised Salim Malik is on the list and not KP.

Btw, .357 Yah

Dude Salim Malik was a very very good player of spin bowling.

 

[Flem274*]

I remember watching Flemings innings of 274*.
He was bit lucky in that innings, there were 3-4 really close LBW shouts off Murali. Mahela might have dropped one at slip as well, not 100% sure though.

Which brings backs to Jono' initial point of how Murali saw and rated his opponents.
No statsguru search is going to show the LBW's and bat/pads that he felt he got robbed on.

Don't think there were many close calls tbh, they just looked close because he was playing soccer with Murali. Should be videotaped and shown to our lot before India because that is how you safely bat time against spin.

Scored a good 174 on another tour as well.

But as you said, his list, no need to cry over it. No Australians on it so he got something right.

 

[thierry henry]

tbh the omission of Fleming is quite astonishing.

I know the "World XI" series was a bit of an irrelevancy, but Fleming also hit 106 off 57 balls and pretty much single-handedly hit Murali for 57 runs off 3.1 overs

http://www.cricinfo.com/ci/engine/match/145463.html

It's Murali's list to make and purely subjective, so I don't begrudge him anything. However, although I doubt he would say as much, he can only have left Fleming off because he felt that Fleming must've got lucky against him.

I also feel a little offended because I personally asked Murali in 04/05 how he rated Fleming and Lara and he said he couldn't split them. He lied to me :-(

 

[NZTailender]

Love how the posts in this thread implies that people armed with a computer and ability to manipulate Cricinfo stats know better than the actual guy who has gone out and actually bowled to numerous batsmen in Test matches.

The only person who knows exactly what Murali is thinking is Murali. Speculation is nice for the sake of discussion but this thread has gone down the plug-hole.

 

[thierry henry]

Love how the posts in this thread implies that people armed with a computer and ability to manipulate Cricinfo stats know better than the actual guy who has gone out and actually bowled to numerous batsmen in Test matches.

Know what?

 

[robelinda]

tbh the omission of Fleming is quite astonishing.

I know the "World XI" series was a bit of an irrelevancy, but Fleming also hit 106 off 57 balls and pretty much single-handedly hit Murali for 57 runs off 3.1 overs

New Zealand v FICA World XI at Christchurch, Jan 22, 2005 | Cricket Scorecard | Cricinfo.com

It's Murali's list to make and purely subjective, so I don't begrudge him anything. However, although I doubt he would say as much, he can only have left Fleming off because he felt that Fleming must've got lucky against him.

I also feel a little offended because I personally asked Murali in 04/05 how he rated Fleming and Lara and he said he couldn't split them. He lied to me :-(

That Fleming knock was awesome, absolutely hammered Murali for some HUGE sixes.

 

[Lostman]

I also feel a little offended because I personally asked Murali in 04/05 how he rated Fleming and Lara and he said he couldn't split them. He lied to me :-(

 

[Ruckus]

Seems like you care more about Ponting's omission than Murali does about making the list.

If you actually took the time to read some of the posts, you'd find Ponting had nothing to do with it per ser. He was just being used as an example to point out some of the statistical peculiarities with Murali's list (which as most have agreed upon now turns out to have nothing to do with why Murali made the selections that he did).

Its funy though because Murali seems to have largely picked Lara as no. 1 because "at times he had “no answer” to Lara’s brilliance." And he highlights one particular moment: "Brian scored a double century against us at the Sinhaelese Sports Ground (in Colombo) once (in 2001-02),” he said. “I felt I’d been on top of him in the first two Tests in that series but in this game he played two amazing on drives through vacant mid-on. They were supreme shots. This day he won the battle". So it definately seems he has picked players based on memorable moments, rather than they how they have performed against him overall. But if that is so then, it seems strange, as the article suggests, that he hasn't picked Slater who made the "memorable double century against Murali in Perth during his first Test Down Under in 1995-96".

So you could argue Ponting and other Australians who have performed well overall against him weren't picked because they didn't have many, if any, memorable innings against Murali. But then even Slater who has perfomed memorably, still isn't in the top 10....And for the record Slater also averages 79.33 overall in innings when Murali was playing.

Hmmmm....

 

[DingDong]

Love how the posts in this thread implies that people armed with a computer and ability to manipulate Cricinfo stats know better than the actual guy who has gone out and actually bowled to numerous batsmen in Test matches.

The only person who knows exactly what Murali is thinking is Murali. Speculation is nice for the sake of discussion but this thread has gone down the plug-hole.

so true nztailender.

 

[Shri]

Thats it, thread closed. DingDong has spoken, which invalidates the 175 posts preceding it.

 

[robelinda]

But if that is so then, it seems strange, as the article suggests, that he hasn't picked Slater who made the "memorable double century against Murali in Perth during his first Test Down Under in 1995-96".

Good knock that 219, included a stack of 6's, one of which was bloody HUGE, over mid wicket, miles back, not an area of the WACA you see peppered that often. no ropes either back then, similar to square at the MCG but bigger. Overall, not a particularly great knock by Slats, pretty scratchy for most of day 1, even though he ended up unbeaten of 189* from memory. Taylor played much more fluently for his 96. Though I guess the match will be mostly be remember for that completely incomptetant Pakistani umpire who obviously thought that if a ball is hitting the imaginary stump 10 inches above the bails IT MUST BE PLUMB. Poor Punter, golden 96 on debut that was, his first scoring shot off his first ball he danced down to Murali and sliced it for four, and a magic career was born, didnt wear a helmet either all innings. Vaas and the others tried to bounce him out at some point and Punter hooked em good. He also smacked Murali around during the next test too at the MCG, played some glorious cover drives.

 

[NUFAN]

If you actually took the time to read some of the posts, you'd find Ponting had nothing to do with it per ser. He was just being used as an example to point out some of the statistical peculiarities with Murali's lists (which as most have agreed upon now turns out to have nothing to do with why Murali made the selections that he did).

Its funy though because Murali seems to have largely picked Lara as no. 1 because "at times he had “no answer” to Lara’s brilliance." And he highlights one particular moment: "Brian scored a double century against us at the Sinhaelese Sports Ground (in Colombo) once (in 2001-02),” he said. “I felt I’d been on top of him in the first two Tests in that series but in this game he played two amazing on drives through vacant mid-on. They were supreme shots. This day he won the battle". So it definately seems he has picked players based on memorable moments, rather than they how they have performed against him overall. But if that is so then, it seems strange, as the article suggests, that he hasn't picked Slater who made the "memorable double century against Murali in Perth during his first Test Down Under in 1995-96".

So you could argue Ponting and other Australians who have performed well overall against him weren't picked because they didn't have many, if any, memorable innings against Murali. But then even Slater who has perfomed memorably, still isn't in the top 10....

Hmmmm.....

It's been pointed out before in this thread that Murali probably felt that someone dominating in his backyard like Lara did; outweighs performances in other countries. Australian conditions are not ideal for Murali, especially Perth where Slater made that brilliant 219

I agree that Slater could have come under consideration though.

 

[NUFAN]

Good knock that 219, included a stack of 6's, one of which was bloody HUGE, over mid wicket, miles back, not an area of the WACA you see peppered that often. no ropes either back then, similar to square at the MCG but bigger. Overall, not a particularly great knock by Slats, pretty scratchy for most of day 1, even though he ended up unbeaten of 189* from memory. Taylor played much more fluently for his 96. Though I guess the match will be mostly be remember for that completely incomptetant Pakistani umpire who obviously thought that if a ball is hitting the imaginary stump 10 inches above the bails IT MUST BE PLUMB. Poor Punter, golden 96 on debut that was, his first scoring shot off his first ball he danced down to Murali and sliced it for four, and a magic career was born, didnt wear a helmet either all innings. Vaas and the others tried to bounce him out at some point and Punter hooked em good. He also smacked Murali around during the next test too at the MCG, played some glorious cover drives.

I was so filthy with the Pakistani umpire! From memory his name was something like Kaiser Hyatt.. I loved Slats innings, I can't remember Taylor's knock at all.