Other Cricket
-
@Victor-Meldrew said in Other Cricket:
Hadlee said Lillee was the best he ever saw. When in a fix, he used to ask himself "What would Lillee do". Like Hadlee, Lillee dropped his speed for accuracy and got even better. As an aside, Dicke Bird spoke highly of him both as a player and a friend - and said the bad boy image was wrong.
For me it's Curtley Ambrose, Hadlee, Lillee & McGrath. By all accounts Trueman was up there as well.
I can't pick Lillee as I never saw him play much. Even in my top ten there's still some bloody good players who miss out like Walsh, Pollock, Beefy, Bishop etc.
When I throw up the names I have perhaps it puts NZs current pace trio ( sorry Jamieson, I'll add you, quartet ) in perspective. As has been mentioned loads it's the fact they're all playing at the same time that is their best strength. Best of all time has to be Holding, Marshall, Roberts and Garner though ( with Croft in there too, his career was brief but outstanding )
-
Just looked up Truman. First to 300 wickets and only Allan Donald, Malcolm Marshall, Waqar Younis and Dale Steyn have a better strike rate than him (49.4). Only Curtly Ambrose and Marshall have a lower average than Trueman's 21.57.
Way up there.
-
@Victor-Meldrew said in Other Cricket:
Just looked up Truman. First to 300 wickets and only Allan Donald, Malcolm Marshall, Waqar Younis and Dale Steyn have a better strike rate than him (49.4). Only Curtly Ambrose and Marshall have a lower average than Trueman's 21.57.
Way up there.
Definitely.
From a kiwi perspective it's a shame Paddles had a ( relatively ) poor start to his career, I'm sure he averaged in the high teens in the second half of it.
-
From some stats site:
"Although his Test career average of 22.29 is impressive, he was lethal from 1978 to 1988, when he picked up 330 wickets at an enviable average of 19.57. He took fifer a whopping 32 times during the period.
Insane
Hadlee averaged an unreal 13.06 with a strike-rate of 33.5 in Tests which New Zealand won by picking up 173 wickets.
Even more insane.
Far more lethal on the sub-continent than other greats as well.
-
I always rated Marshall as the best of the West Indian quicks and it is a pretty high bar. At this peak in the early 80s, he really had everything a fast bowler needed, great control, ability to move the ball around and a lethal bouncer which took players by surprise. A decent batsman as well.
-
@KiwiPie said in Other Cricket:
I always rated Marshall as the best of the West Indian quicks and it is a pretty high bar. At this peak in the early 80s, he really had everything a fast bowler needed, great control, ability to move the ball around and a lethal bouncer which took players by surprise. A decent batsman as well.
Yeah I think he probably was the best of that bunch but fuck he certainly had some competition ( which probably helped the competitiveness )
10 fifties as well, that’s handy.
-
@Victor-Meldrew said in Other Cricket:
From some stats site:
"Although his Test career average of 22.29 is impressive, he was lethal from 1978 to 1988, when he picked up 330 wickets at an enviable average of 19.57. He took fifer a whopping 32 times during the period.
Insane
Hadlee averaged an unreal 13.06 with a strike-rate of 33.5 in Tests which New Zealand won by picking up 173 wickets.
Even more insane.
Far more lethal on the sub-continent than other greats as well.
Will be interesting to see if KW usurps Paddles as our GOAT when he retires. He still has some work to do.
-
-
@Snowy said in Other Cricket:
@MN5 said in Other Cricket:
Will be interesting to see if KW usurps Paddles as our GOAT when he retires. He still has some work to do.
What would that take? An average of 55? Maybe 60?
Net entirely sure. The latter would probably be a bridge too far but finishing in 5-6 years time with a test batting average of 55 is definitely doable. It should be noted that recent greats like Tendulkar, Ponting and Lara saw their stats dip a bit in their twilight years though.
-
@MN5 said in Other Cricket:
@Snowy said in Other Cricket:
@MN5 said in Other Cricket:
Will be interesting to see if KW usurps Paddles as our GOAT when he retires. He still has some work to do.
What would that take? An average of 55? Maybe 60?
Net entirely sure. The latter would probably be a bridge too far but finishing in 5-6 years time with a test batting average of 55 is definitely doable. It should be noted that recent greats like Tendulkar, Ponting and Lara saw their stats dip a bit in their twilight years though.
High 50s puts him with Sanga, Sobers, Hammond but still 10 ahead of that (I don't count a few - careers too short. Voges Bus change for example).
Paddles has heaps ahead of him, average wise, but most of them are ancient history, played fuck all tests too. The first 8 were all pre first world war.
-
I don't think it is simply his final average that will define KW's career. He probably needs to make a defining set of big scores in Australia, South Africa, England or India to be honest. His average there is 41.11 (9 tests), 21.16 (4), 30.87 (4), 35.46 (7) respectively.
-
@KiwiPie said in Other Cricket:
I don't think it is simply his final average that will define KW's career. He probably needs to make a defining set of big scores in Australia, South Africa, England or India to be honest. His average there is 41.11 (9 tests), 21.16 (4), 30.87 (4), 35.46 (7) respectively.
Good point but I’d say most genuine greats have teams they struggle against, relatively speaking.
-
@MN5 said in Other Cricket:
Hmmmmmm, at a guess my top ten fast bowlers in no particular order would comprise Paddles, Imran, Waqar, Wasim, Curtly, Marshall, Garner, Donald, Steyn, McGrath.
I have to make room for Michael Holding, who is my all time favourite bowler.
Probably at the expense of Alan Donald in your list.
I happened to be dining with Hashan Tillekaratne after the Sri Lankans beat the South Africans in Wellington at the 1992 CWC and asked him how they'd found Donald (SA only recently back from isolation). He said, "Not too bad. They'd recently been playing Pakistan and Waqar and Wasim were a yard faster". Take that, those who lunch with Joe Moody et al!
Syd Barnes apparently one of the greatest ever - but, behind Bondy and Rabada on Strike Rate!
Test matches | Bowling records | Best career strike rate | ESPNcricinfo
Find records of Best career strike rate in Test matches only on ESPNcricinfo.
-
@Chris-B said in Other Cricket:
I have to make room for Michael Holding, who is my all time favourite bowler.
Yep. Any bowler with the nickname "whispering death" has to be in there.
Jegs had breakfast with Joe Moody, Jerome Kaino, Liam Squire, and Damian Mc Kenzie, not lunch. Don't know why I remember that. It's almost like it was repeated ad nauseum.
You are doing O.K. with the name dropping though. George Bennet the other day, now Tillekaratne albeit 1992.
-
@Chris-B said in Other Cricket:
I happened to be dining with Hashan Tillekaratne after the Sri Lankans beat the South Africans in Wellington at the 1992 CWC
You were having dinner with him or stalked his table and accosted him when he went to the loo?
-
@Chris-B I certainly like all I have heard about Holding but I just didn’t see him play much, only highlights. I remember Garner and Marshall when they came here in 87 but Holding had retired by then I think ?
Of course his commentary being as smooth as a Nice glass of Jamaican rum helps his aura too !
-
@MN5 said in Other Cricket:
@Chris-B I certainly like all I have heard about Holding but I just didn’t see him play much, only highlights. I remember Garner and Marshall when they came here in 87 but Holding had retired by then I think ?
1987 in NZ was Holding's last test series. He played in the 1st test only.
A couple of mates and I wagged school for the day to watch WI play a warmup game at Seddon Park. Richards and Marshall weren't playing and sat on the embarkment with us to have a chat. I remember getting them to sign my exercise book.
-
@Bovidae said in Other Cricket:
@MN5 said in Other Cricket:
@Chris-B I certainly like all I have heard about Holding but I just didn’t see him play much, only highlights. I remember Garner and Marshall when they came here in 87 but Holding had retired by then I think ?
1987 in NZ was Holding's last test series. He played in the 1st test only.
A couple of mates and I wagged school for the day to watch WI play a warmup game at Seddon Park. Richards and Marshall weren't playing and sat on the embarkment with us to have a chat. I remember getting them to sign my exercise book.
Outstanding, yarning with those two legends ( and they both absolutely were ) beats breakfast with Liam Squire, Joe Moody, Jerome Kaino and Damian McKenzie that's for sure.
-
@KiwiPie said in Other Cricket:
@Chris-B said in Other Cricket:
I happened to be dining with Hashan Tillekaratne after the Sri Lankans beat the South Africans in Wellington at the 1992 CWC
You were having dinner with him or stalked his table and accosted him when he went to the loo?
A guy I worked with happened to be big in the NZ-Sri Lanka Friendship Society (or some-such) so I wangled an invite to their dinner. Hashan got assigned to our table.
-
My Gramps loaned me Feddie Trueman’s book when I was maybe about 13-14. I was quite big on sports biographies there for a while. We’d go round to Nan & Gramps’ over summer and I’d sit there watching what ever cricket was on with him, while Mum and Nan drank far too many cups of tea. He’d tell me stories of how he’d listen to the cricket on the wireless when England were out here and what an amazing bowler Trueman was.
Can’t remember a lot of the detail from the book, but I do remember thinking gee, this guy was some bowler!
