Ranking the candidates for best fast/pace bowler ever: The Rankings thread

[trundler]

Nope, it can't go belly up with Steyn, he's done enough to keep him ahead of the competition. He's top 5 of all time for me, Donald not quite.

For things to go belly up for someone like steyn he will have to do something like Botham, that play another 5 years and be really bad.

Yeah Steyn is my all time #4. The chances of him Bothaming are slim but still a possibility albeit remote.
Donald top 10 too.

 

[Bolo]

Steyn can't Botham from here. He's too old, and there is too much competition. He wont be given even a year of performing badly before he's no longer a regular

 

[Pap Finn Keighl]

Wasim was averaging a paltry 3 WPM after 96'. Was quick to 300 but declined steadily after that so yeah loses points there. Ambrose ahead for sure.

Considering
Longevity, peer opinion, skills, lack of fielding support.. Greatest bowler since Sydney Barnes

 

[Bolo]

Considering
Longevity, peer opinion, skills, lack of fielding support.. Greatest bowler since Sydney Barnes

3rd or 2nd best in his own team. Everything here applies to Imran in particular, except you are trading a wider range of skillset for a more effective one. Results beat flash.

 

[trundler]

Players like Wasim and Ponting get no points for longevity based on having played a lot of matches when they were a burden in their last phases. Akram took 14 wickets in his last 12 matches. He's probably the most entertaining but not as effective, as Bolo said.

 

[Bolo]

Players like Wasim and Ponting get no points for longevity based on having played a lot of matches when they were a burden in their last phases. Akram took 14 wickets in his last 12 matches. He's probably the most entertaining but not as effective, as Bolo said.

While I could happily rip into Akrams record all day, he does deserve credit for longevity- I don't know of a quick who played as long other than Imran. That end is surprisingly dire though.

 

[OverratedSanity]

Players like Wasim and Ponting get no points for longevity based on having played a lot of matches when they were a burden in their last phases. Akram took 14 wickets in his last 12 matches. He's probably the most entertaining but not as effective, as Bolo said.

Don't know where you're getting your stats from. He took 31 wickets in his last 12 tests @ 29. That's perfectly decent for a fast bowler nearing the end. This phase also includes the tours to WI and SL where he was one of the best bowlers on show.

 

[trundler]

Don't know where you're getting your stats from. He took 31 wickets in his last 12 tests @ 29. That's perfectly decent for a fast bowler nearing the end. This phase also includes the tours to WI and SL where he was one of the best bowlers on show.

Huh. I thought he took 400 in 92 and the next 14 came in 12. Not too bad, that. I retract my objection then.

The larger point stands though.

 

[OverratedSanity]

What's your larger point?

 

[trundler]

Players like Wasim and Ponting get no points for longevity based on having played a lot of matches when they were a burden in their last phases. Akram took 14 wickets in his last 12 matches. He's probably the most entertaining but not as effective, as Bolo said.

^

 

[OverratedSanity]

I dunno, I think it's a bit of a meme which has stuck with Wasim on CW rather than there being that much truth to it.

 

[ankitj]

90s overall

Ambrose>Wasim>McGrath>Donald>Walsh>Waqar>Pollock

No. If you look purely at averages, Donald was marginally better than McGrath in 90s. Cricket Records | Records | 1990s | Test matches | Most wickets | ESPNcricinfo

Admittedly this is without drilling into averages by country and opposition. But it does agree with what I remember from memory about Donald being named among 2-3 top fast bowlers in most of 90s (often the best). McGrath started entering that discussion only towards last couple of years.

 

[Pap Finn Keighl]

3rd or 2nd best in his own team. Everything here applies to Imran in particular, except you are trading a wider range of skillset for a more effective one. Results beat flash.

Everything here applies to Imran, on a slightly lower level.

 

[mr_mister]

10th. Wasim Akram (318 points)

Top 5 finishes: 4
Bottom 5 finishes: 2
Highest finish: 2nd (1 time)
Lowest finish: 25th (1 time)


According to CW the greatest left handed paceman ever. Akram had a beautiful action where he concealed the ball from the batsman right up until the last moment. He was a master of swing bowling. Along with Waqar in the 90s he used reverse swing with tremendous success, an art passed down from Sarfaz Nawaz to Imran Khan to his two apprentices Wasim and Waqar. With this skill they sent the stumps of many batsman flying backwards.

Funnily enough he performed weakest against England, who produced one of the weakest batting line-ups of the 90s. He averaged a smidge over 30 against them. Against the high class Australia he excelled, and his average of 25 against them could have been even lower if not for a poor series in 99/00 when he was starting to show signs of aging.

But his test career started way back in 1985 and to be still playing in the 21st century was amazing. He only just scraped over 100 tests despite a 17 year test career. If he had played for England or Australia he may have played 150. While 414 test wickets is nothing to scoff at it could have been even more. Still a wonderful career and a wonderful bowler. A worthy name to kick off the top 10.

 

[harsh.ag]

10th. Wasim Akram (318 points)

Bottom 5 finishes: 2
Lowest finish: 25th (1 time)

Hope that made you two ****s feel good

 

[smash84]

Don't know where you're getting your stats from. He took 31 wickets in his last 12 tests @ 29. That's perfectly decent for a fast bowler nearing the end. This phase also includes the tours to WI and SL where he was one of the best bowlers on show.

Thanks for putting this myth to rest. Trundler has been peddling this myth since he's joined this forum. I am glad somebody checked

 

[trundler]

Thanks for putting this myth to rest. Trundler has been peddling this myth since he's joined this forum. I am glad somebody checked

Dunno man, I must've ****ed up. Wasn't as bad as I thought.

 

[smash84]

And I am also really happy for wasim to have made top10 . The guy gets underrated on here I think.

 

[trundler]

Records | Test matches | Bowling records | Fastest to 400 wickets | ESPNcricinfo

I was basing it off this list. Apparently it was Warne who took 400 in 92. How obtuse.
Top 10 is well deserved I'd say. Imran yet to make an appearance though.

 

[OverratedSanity]

It's funny how the "Wasim wasn't great after 96/97" thing has become almost an accepted fact somehow, when in reality in just 1999-2000, Wasim bowled superbly against India in the 1999 series (that crazy ball to dravid), took back to back hattricks to win the 1999 Asian test championship for Pakistan, almost singlehandedly bowled Pakistan to their first series in WI (robbed by Billy Doctrove) and bowled some amazing spells with the old ball in SL. Some of my favourite Wasim memories are from this phase towards the end of his career. He was a champion bowler almost all the way to the end of his career, just a bit compromised on pace, but it didn't even matter much. He wasn't Waqar ffs/

His only bad series was in Aus and unsurprisingly, that seems to be brought up more than all the stuff I mentioned.