Smith v Ponting

[Victor Ian]

Bangladesh

Yeah....but the rules!

We count his OK record playing bangladesh against Tendulkar. Therefore this is a plus for Smith.

 

[ankitj]

There's obviously a ton of projecting going on with the 2nd to Bradman stuff. Though it's worth noting his level of dominance over this many tests is basically at that level.

This article looks at the best 33 tests period of a player's career and the 2nd best average is 72.56 by Viv The best stats measure | The Cricket Monthly | ESPN Cricinfo

Just through guessing some dates a few weeks ago I found a 33 game spell where Smith averaged 76.26 Batting records | Test matches | Cricinfo Statsguru | ESPNcricinfo

And that arbitrary measure actually limits him a bit. In his last 39 tests he averages 79.33 Batting records | Test matches | Cricinfo Statsguru | ESPNcricinfo

Basically, even if he never scores another run we can still look back at him as having one of the greatest periods of dominance in test history, which is worth something.

Pretty cool. Beats Richards for peak-33 averages and beats Tendulkar for peak-33 centuries. Whattaplaya!

 

[Black_Warrior]

Finally we have a comparison thread again.Loving it. Cant' wait for the Smith vs Tendulkar thread once he goes past Tendulkar's runs tally in half the number of the matches

 

[oblongballs]

Ponting's era wasn't tougher imo. The early-mid 2000s were an extremely mediocre era of fast bowling. SA, England, India, NZ all have far superior bowling attacks today.

hahahahahahahahahaha

 

[oblongballs]

Anyway, back to reality, Ponting was/is/possibly always will be the far superior batsman. Smith is terrific but he is not close to POnting.

Ponting batted at 3 for most of his career, played to the highest possible level IN ALL FORMATS and had the captaincy for a serious chunk of time. He was also far better to watch, so going beyond simply stats, Ponting was a fine, fine player.

Smith has some way to go to even approach that.

then again, the media likes to create hype and then the fans follow it, as if history doesn't exist. It's the same with all the Kohli talk for instance.

 

[Spikey]

Actually you're wrong

 

[Coronis]

Anyway, back to reality, Ponting was/is/possibly always will be the far superior batsman. Smith is terrific but he is not close to POnting.

Ponting batted at 3 for most of his career, played to the highest possible level IN ALL FORMATS and had the captaincy for a serious chunk of time. He was also far better to watch, so going beyond simply stats, Ponting was a fine, fine player.

Smith has some way to go to even approach that.

then again, the media likes to create hype and then the fans follow it, as if history doesn't exist. It's the same with all the Kohli talk for instance.

Too bad we're talking tests only here. Does batting at 3 automatically make you superior to someone batting at 4? News to me. Being "better to watch" (extremely subjective btw) doesn't mean **** about a batsman's actual ability. Take Mark Waugh vs Steve Waugh for example.

 

[Black_Warrior]

Oblongballs,

here's how it goes at CW

When we specifically mention ODIs, we mean One Day Internationals

When we specifically mention T20s, we mean Twenty20

When there's nothing specified, we're talking about test cricket

 

[srbhkshk]

hahahahahahahahahaha

Truth is often hilarious, I agree.

 

[oblongballs]

Too bad we're talking tests only here. Does batting at 3 automatically make you superior to someone batting at 4? News to me. Being "better to watch" (extremely subjective btw) doesn't mean **** about a batsman's actual ability. Take Mark Waugh vs Steve Waugh for example.

Cricket is not just played in the test format BUT even if we're talking about just one format, be it tests, Ponting is still better.

Smith may end up with a better career but that is some 10 years and many, many tests down the line. As of now, he is not better.

 

[OverratedSanity]

hahahahahahahahahaha

Laugh all you want, its true. I'm sure the likes of Daryl Tuffey and Gain larsen **** all over Boult Wagner and southee,right? The only truly world class bowler they had was bond and Ponting faced him once in Bond's debut series where he was raw and never again.

And apart from that 18 month stretch where Zaheer became great, India didn't have anywhere near what they have currently in terms of pace bowling.

The only team that had a clearly better pace attack was Pakistan.

 

[Slifer]

I remember a few years ago when the big 4 were being compared to SRT and BCL and I thought the comparisons then were premature. But Steve Smith has convinced me that he's the real deal!! Obviously we have a wait until his career is over to fully judge but the man is an absolute beast.

 

[vcs]

All 4 of them can still enter the comparison TBH, though obviously Smith is ahead at this point. They're all going very well at this stage in their career.

 

[GuyFromLancs]

Root has the potential to be our greatest ever batsman. And I think he will

 

[Coronis]

Root has the potential to be our greatest ever batsman. And I think he will

He has the potential but still hasn't delivered. Until he starts converting 50's to centuries he's not in the conversation with the likes of Hobbs, Sutcliffe, Hammond, Hutton etc.

 

[GuyFromLancs]

Agreed. I think he'll manage it though. I reckon he has 10 years in him.

 

[Slifer]

Root has the potential to be our greatest ever batsman. And I think he will

Has a lot of work ahead of him imho

 

[Slifer]

The sad thing about it is, every team has either a batsman or bowler worthy of being called a potential atg or making their first xi except of course for my beloved WI smfh!!!

 

[TheJediBrah]

I already rate Kohli ahead of Tendulkar. Tendulkar has that longevity thing going for him though.

 

[sphynx]

I dislike just putting No. of tests in an argument like this.

It's actually absolutely pointless, should always be innings and given the importance of the century stat we place in the game, centuries/per innings should always be there.

Ponting:

Mat: 168
Innings: 287
Ave: 51.85
100's: 41
Innings/100: 7.00

Smith:

Mat: 61
Innings: 111
Ave: 63.75
100's: 23
Innings/100: 4.82