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Wasim Akram vs Allan Donald

Who was the greater bowler?

  • Wasim Akram

    Votes: 24 53.3%
  • Allan Donald

    Votes: 21 46.7%

  • Total voters
    45

subshakerz

International Coach
Akram. Though admittedly Donald had better stats, I feel that the peer rating of Akram is too high to put Donald above him as they were contemporaries.
 

Kirkut

International Regular
Allan Donald was the most quintessential southern hemisphere bowler, tall athletic frame to generate pace and hits the deck hard to extract bounce and seam movement. If the opposition chooses to bat on a day 1 pitch and I have fantasies to bowl them out for 90, I would toss the ball to Donald. However he was too reliant on his pace.

Wasim Akram was more complete as bowler and easily better with the old ball. But as discussed already in this forum many times that he under achieved in tests and not the ideal bowler to get quick top order wickets with new ball.
 

Arachnodouche

International Captain
I believe Donald himself rates Wasim at the very top, among guys like Holding and Marshall. You can sense the fanboy in him when he talks about them.
 

HookShot

U19 Vice-Captain
Can we really make a true comparison between left and right arm bowlers as the angles and everything are all different.

Personally I’d prefer Wasim in my team but only because great left-arm fast bowlers are as rare as hens teeth.
 

cnerd123

likes this
Can we really make a true comparison between left and right arm bowlers as the angles and everything are all different.

Personally I’d prefer Wasim in my team but only because great left-arm fast bowlers are as rare as hens teeth.
Yea was thinking about this when skimming the Trueman/Wasim thread, but everyone seemed obsessed about dropped catches instead. Surely Wasim gets a bit of extra credit for being one of the rare few high-quality left arm quicks in the history of the game? The diversity he would add to a hypothetical bowling attack is worth factoring in IMO. Helps make the other bowlers more potent, so even if he doesn't better than his stats the others might.
 

Kirkut

International Regular
I believe Donald himself rates Wasim at the very top, among guys like Holding and Marshall. You can sense the fanboy in him when he talks about them.
It's a compliment and not really fanboying IMO. I mean do you seriously think that Tendulkar gave Warne nightmares?
 

subshakerz

International Coach
One of my endearing childhood memories was Wasim shouting 'catchatt!!!' in his own style whenever the ball was in the air. The only bastman I remember really comfortable against him in his prime was De Silva.
 

Slifer

International Captain
I'm really hoping we do this comparison properly by focusing on Wasim's dropped catches, placing his stats against a contemporary bowler not named in the thread title, and ignoring Allan Donald completely.
Lol lol, who would do a thing like that?? :ph34r:
 

ankitj

Hall of Fame Member
Donald (if we are talking about tests)

Will vote for Akram as the greater cricketer if we interpret greatness broadly.
 

Pap Finn Keighl

International Debutant
Allan Donald was the most quintessential southern hemisphere bowler, tall athletic frame to generate pace and hits the deck hard to extract bounce and seam movement. If the opposition chooses to bat on a day 1 pitch and I have fantasies to bowl them out for 90, I would toss the ball to Donald. However he was too reliant on his pace.

Wasim Akram was more complete as bowler and easily better with the old ball. But as discussed already in this forum many times that he under achieved in tests and not the ideal bowler to get quick top order wickets with new ball.
Top order average
Akram 17.9 ( Runs conceded to a specific batsman before getting his wicket )
Donald 23.4
 

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