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Zaheer Abbas vs Ian Chappell

trundler

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Better batsman? They had careers which overlapped a fair bit and both had similar roles. Abbas averaged 2 more runs more innings but had a slightly inferior century ratio. Better batsman? You decide! Interesting comparison imo.
 

smash84

The Tiger King
Zaheer in ODIs, Chappelli in Tests.
This.

Apparently Imran didn't rate Abbas very highly because he seemed to be intimidated by fast bowlers but he rated Chappeli as one of the finest batsmen he had seen because he was fearless in batting.
 

Line and Length

Cricketer Of The Year
An interesting comparison between two fine batsmen. Chappell always struck me as more aggressive - probably because of his love of the hook shot and his overall demeanor. I though Zaheer was the more elegant of the two.

Imran's opinion may have been right but Zaheer was one of the few players to wear spectacles and that was in an era before helmets. Facing Lillee and Thomson, or the West Indies pace attack, intimidated a lot of batsmen.

Given the attacks they faced I would give a narrow points decision to Zaheer Abbas.
 

steve132

U19 Debutant
This.

Apparently Imran didn't rate Abbas very highly because he seemed to be intimidated by fast bowlers but he rated Chappeli as one of the finest batsmen he had seen because he was fearless in batting.
Lloyd and Holding both ranked Chappell very highly - in fact, they are on record as preferring him to his younger brother Greg. That seems to me to be an exaggeration, but I can understand why they hold that view.

Zaheer was one of my favorite batsmen during the 1970's. He played a series of great innings in English county cricket during that decade.
 

mr_mister

Cricket Web: All-Time Legend
I'm gonna go with Abbas. Don't think Ian achieved anything that great as a batsman - great captain though
 

Burgey

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Fmd Chappelli is 76.

Averaged 50 as skipper. That's a great number for a number three.
 

the big bambino

International Captain
My memories of Ian Chappell have condensed into a meme. Australia 2/6 on a green wicket. A couple of hours later Australia 3/154, Chappell out for 57.

Wish he'd shut up now though.
 

mr_mister

Cricket Web: All-Time Legend
all good haha you talking about seeing Ian Chappell in that context took me by surprise, I assumed you were way younger
 

Line and Length

Cricketer Of The Year
Chappelli did best against Pakistan (ave 58.7) and his figures against West Indies (57.2), New Zealand (48.6) and England (41.1) were his most impressive. He was a failure against South Africa (16.9 in 18 innings).

Zaheer was at his best against India (87.0), England (51.7) and Australia (44.1). He struggled against New Zealand (17.9 in 24 innings) and West Indies (18.5 in 15 innings).

Purely on these figures, Chappell was better against West Indies and New Zealand while Zaheer performed better against India and England.

Going head-to-head Chappell gets the nod in Australia v Pakistan games.

These comparisons, of course, don't take into account bowling attacks and venues.
 

Red

The normal awards that everyone else has
:laugh:Sorry I was just taken by surprise by the directness of the question. Just turned 60. Chappelli was a boyhood hero. As was Lillee, but I fell out of love with him after I read about his behaviour toward Kim Hughes.
I imagined you a bit younger, 40ish

Must be your youthful looks
 

the big bambino

International Captain
all good haha you talking about seeing Ian Chappell in that context took me by surprise, I assumed you were way younger
I remember having an impolite discussion with a poster on another site about Chappelli's merits. He didn't rate Chappelli because of his run rate. Which was an inappropriate measure both for the time and of Chappelli's worth. I can only recall him dragging our arses out of the fire and watching him do it meant holding your breath every ball until Australia were safe. So of course you aren't going to score quickly in those circumstances. But he was an aggressive bat. Even better he was judicious and batted to the situation.
 

the big bambino

International Captain
Don't think 3rd man was popular with Aussie captains then. He did love a lot of slips though and he had the bowlers to justify them and fielders to put there too.
 

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