Cricket - best ever, trivia etc
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Has cricket ever known a worse batsman than Chris Martin ?
Even that Indian number 11 Nirender Hirwani ( who Kapil Dev shielded to get four sixes to avoid the follow on against England ) was better with 54 test runs at 5.40 ( 66 test wickets )
Martin got 123 test runs at 2.36 ( compared to 233 test wickets ).
He dominated the lesser attacks at first class level with 479 runs at 3.71 ( compared to 599 wickets ) but the average was boosted by a staggering 115 not outs in 244 innings.
Brian Lara once got more runs in a single innings than Martin managed in the aforementioned 244.
As a paceman he had nice swing and seam movement without the scary pace, If you take out the batting side of things and only compare bowling and fielding he was pretty much on par with the great Jacques Kallis I reckon.
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@MN5 Mate Farmer Chatfield wants a word.
Real Chats fan, and will always remember watching him get a huge (for him) score of 20 odd (I think) against Pakistan. Pakistan were trying to keep him on strike and Jeremy Coney was at other end. He somehow managed to get his bat or pads in way for quite sometime to help NZ win test.
One memory is him throwing bat at ball, hit it clean as , it shot away was always a 4, Coney at other end took a couple of steps and stopped mid pitch to watch ball go over boundary, Chats passed him twice tearing up and down the pitch never looking or imagining he could hit a boundary. It was worth watching the whole test to see that. Lol. -
@Dan54 said in Cricket - best ever, trivia etc:
@MN5 Mate Farmer Chatfield wants a word.
Real Chats fan, and will always remember watching him get a huge (for him) score of 20 odd (I think) against Pakistan. Pakistan were trying to keep him on strike and Jeremy Coney was at other end. He somehow managed to get his bat or pads in way for quite sometime to help NZ win test.
One memory is him throwing bat at ball, hit it clean as , it shot away was always a 4, Coney at other end took a couple of steps and stopped mid pitch to watch ball go over boundary, Chats passed him twice tearing up and down the pitch never looking or imagining he could hit a boundary. It was worth watching the whole test to see that. Lol.I can’t consider the Naenae express. That innings was pretty damn legendary all things considered but I think that’s my point. Also a batting average of 8.57 is streaks ahead of Martin ! Didn’t Chatfield actually face more balls than Coney in that partnership ?
Phil Tufnell warrants a mention. Courtney Walsh was pretty shite too.
I’m not sure I can consider Glenn McGrath after a 50 against us.
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@MN5 Yep mate, Chats faced more balls, Coney laughingly thanked Chats for protecting him from the strike on aftermatch tv interview.
But point taken, after that innings we couldn't put him in same boat as Martin.
I kind of wish I still enjoyed cricket like I did back then! -
@Dan54 said in Cricket - best ever, trivia etc:
@MN5 Yep mate, Chats faced more balls, Coney laughingly thanked Chats for protecting him from the strike on aftermatch tv interview.
But point taken, after that innings we couldn't put him in same boat as Martin.
I kind of wish I still enjoyed cricket like I did back then!I hear that. Those 80s legends were in the most part actually far from legends….but they were to us !
A tail ender getting a gutsy innings is one of my favourite things in cricket
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Further to the post from @Dan54 about liking cricket more back in the day, it’s an excellent point and we seem to judge todays players so much harsher than the battlers of yesteryear. If Henry Nicholls played in the mid 80s I’m sure he’d be much more revered than he is today. Southee gets grief for irresponsible batting but Lance Cairns was lauded for his occasional big hits.
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@MN5 Hirwani's test average is blown apart by the leg spinner B. S. Chandrasekhar's test average of 4.07. They were great occasions when the real bunnies strode confidently to the wicket and were roundly applauded each time they avoided getting dismissed (read played and missed or shouldered arms) and were practically given a standing ovation if they actually managed to get bat on ball!
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@Catogrande Tuffers' batting average was over five so he must have edged a few away for singles. But you are right, I can remember him as a real duffer who, if he held the bat by the blade instead of the handle, it probably would not have made much difference!
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@Chris-B said in Cricket - best ever, trivia etc:
Pinetree doesn't make the team anymore,
Sorry, it's Xmas and I've run out of threads and I'm reduced to reading old cricket threads, but fuck off, Pinetree easily makes our best of team.
Bloody South Islanders trying to minimise his standing to hype up the second best openside this country has produced.
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@Godder Totally get where you are coming from., but giving out a shout to Wilfred Rhodes.
The soinning all rounder started as an 11 but gradually worked his way up the orde, even opening 43 times (and scoring 2 centuries doing so).
Averaged 44 as an 11 and 30 overall
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@Godder said in Cricket - best ever, trivia etc:
On the far side of all this, Boult is probably the best test number 11 ever.
100%. Would bat at nine in most other teams but doesn’t get a chance cos others are better ( although Wags actually averages less ). An average of 15.81 is firmly in the “handy enough” category for me ( Lance Cairns averaged 16.28 and he generally batted eight or nine at test level )
I’ve seen Boult play some genuinely decent shots when he gets going.
Despite the fact we gave the world Chris Martin it must be said all of our of our tailenders since then can at least hold a bat.
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@MN5 said in Cricket - best ever, trivia etc:
@Godder said in Cricket - best ever, trivia etc:
On the far side of all this, Boult is probably the best test number 11 ever.
100%. Would bat at nine in most other teams but doesn’t get a chance cos others are better ( although Wags actually averages less ). An average of 15.81 is firmly in the “handy enough” category for me ( Lance Cairns averaged 16.28 and he generally batted eight or nine at test level )
I’ve seen Boult play some genuinely decent shots when he gets going.
Despite the fact we gave the world Chris Martin it must be said all of our of our tailenders since then can at least hold a bat.
While none of this is factually incorrect. It is weird to compare him to Lance Cairns as an 8/9 when Boult himself has batted in a blackcaps teams with poor/unsuccessful number 8s for much of the decade he was in the team (Southee, Bracewell, Jamieson).
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@Gunner said in Cricket - best ever, trivia etc:
@Rapido a bit rough to call Jamieson unsuccessful?
He’s obviously had injury problems of late, but from memory he’s done pretty well with that bat hasn’t he?Still early days for Jamieson.
Southee has cracked some impressive 50s although probably underachieved with the bat overall ( as the fern reminds us every summer )
Bracewell has massively underachieved with the bat at the highest level. His first class numbers are good.
