NZ v SA Test Series
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@mariner4life said in NZ v SA Test Series:
@Cyclops someone like Ponting? You mean brilliant? I didn't like him, but that guy was an unreal player. If he winds his career up a year earlier, his stats look even better.
What I meant with Ponting was that in his prime his average was touching 60 but he played about 3 years too long and brought himself down to 'merely' great. That's the process I think we'll see from Smith but I think it will come sooner for Smith than it did for Ponting.
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@Duluth That's true about Smith - though they didn't persist with him as a specialist spinner for long - when he came back he was batting at 5 and 6.
There's quite a few in the top 10 who played/overlapped (in) the same era as Bradman, so you'd tend to think bat dominated ball through the 1930s/40s.
What's really noticeable to me is the lack of players near the top in the 1970s/80s - when the West Indians, Lillee and Thompson, Hadlee, Imran etc were operating. I think that was the toughest era to be a batsman.
If you take the list as a whole, about a quarter of the players are still active or retired in the last several years - say as far back as Dravid, so I'd tend to call this a batting friendly era.
e.g. I wouldn't yet be prepared to say Kane is a better batsman than Crowe, even though his stats are significantly better.
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@Duluth said in NZ v SA Test Series:
@Chris-B. said in NZ v SA Test Series:
Interesting thing in Kane vs Smith is that Kane is a year younger and only three hundreds behind. He started quite a bit younger for NZ, as a less complete batsman, so his average is probably compromised a bit by that.
But Smith started batting at 8 as a specialist spinner? If Kane's average was 'compromised', so was Smith's
@Chris-B. said in NZ v SA Test Series:
Smith is certainly a cut above his teammates, but in his era people like Voges and Handscombe have also constructed hugely impressive averages.
The surprising thing about the list of highest averages is how few modern players are in the top 20
http://stats.espncricinfo.com/wi/content/records/282910.htmlVoges is an anomaly but most of the extremely high averages come from a long time ago. The modern guy who stands out on the list is Sangakkara, having that average across a huge number of games is incredible.
Even more remarkable about Sanga's record is that he was a Keeper for a lot of that. His batting average, if memory servers me correctly, improved a lot when he gave up the gloves. I have him as the greatest player of the modern era.
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@Donsteppa Yeah - and now BJ goes down to the spinner and yorks himself. I was hoping those two would get to 150 and then just progressively press the pedal a bit harder until they were in "death" mode.
A long way to the 200 lead I'm looking for now.
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Must be a hard pitch to make runs on ... I think the word has been given to accelerate a bit to see what can get on the board (surely aim must be 150-200 lead) and we've only upped it from 2.something to barely 3.
A beautiful quick fire cameo of 30 runs by one of the tail enders would be absolute gold dust right now.
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@No-Quarter said in NZ v SA Test Series:
@Duluth said in NZ v SA Test Series:
@Chris-B. said in NZ v SA Test Series:
Interesting thing in Kane vs Smith is that Kane is a year younger and only three hundreds behind. He started quite a bit younger for NZ, as a less complete batsman, so his average is probably compromised a bit by that.
But Smith started batting at 8 as a specialist spinner? If Kane's average was 'compromised', so was Smith's
@Chris-B. said in NZ v SA Test Series:
Smith is certainly a cut above his teammates, but in his era people like Voges and Handscombe have also constructed hugely impressive averages.
The surprising thing about the list of highest averages is how few modern players are in the top 20
http://stats.espncricinfo.com/wi/content/records/282910.htmlVoges is an anomaly but most of the extremely high averages come from a long time ago. The modern guy who stands out on the list is Sangakkara, having that average across a huge number of games is incredible.
Even more remarkable about Sanga's record is that he was a Keeper for a lot of that. His batting average, if memory servers me correctly, improved a lot when he gave up the gloves. I have him as the greatest player of the modern era.
Is that counting Lara and Tendulkar?
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@MN5 said in NZ v SA Test Series:
@No-Quarter said in NZ v SA Test Series:
@Duluth said in NZ v SA Test Series:
@Chris-B. said in NZ v SA Test Series:
Interesting thing in Kane vs Smith is that Kane is a year younger and only three hundreds behind. He started quite a bit younger for NZ, as a less complete batsman, so his average is probably compromised a bit by that.
But Smith started batting at 8 as a specialist spinner? If Kane's average was 'compromised', so was Smith's
@Chris-B. said in NZ v SA Test Series:
Smith is certainly a cut above his teammates, but in his era people like Voges and Handscombe have also constructed hugely impressive averages.
The surprising thing about the list of highest averages is how few modern players are in the top 20
http://stats.espncricinfo.com/wi/content/records/282910.htmlVoges is an anomaly but most of the extremely high averages come from a long time ago. The modern guy who stands out on the list is Sangakkara, having that average across a huge number of games is incredible.
Even more remarkable about Sanga's record is that he was a Keeper for a lot of that. His batting average, if memory servers me correctly, improved a lot when he gave up the gloves. I have him as the greatest player of the modern era.
Is that counting Lara and Tendulkar?
Yes. Gayle too, as controversial as you may find that.
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@MajorRage said in NZ v SA Test Series:
especially for 3 runs an over.
Going at 8's for the last 3 or 4 overs, so definitely worthwhile batting a bit longer at that rate.
I think they'll keep smacking it until the lead is 200.
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@No-Quarter said in NZ v SA Test Series:
@MN5 said in NZ v SA Test Series:
@No-Quarter said in NZ v SA Test Series:
@Duluth said in NZ v SA Test Series:
@Chris-B. said in NZ v SA Test Series:
Interesting thing in Kane vs Smith is that Kane is a year younger and only three hundreds behind. He started quite a bit younger for NZ, as a less complete batsman, so his average is probably compromised a bit by that.
But Smith started batting at 8 as a specialist spinner? If Kane's average was 'compromised', so was Smith's
@Chris-B. said in NZ v SA Test Series:
Smith is certainly a cut above his teammates, but in his era people like Voges and Handscombe have also constructed hugely impressive averages.
The surprising thing about the list of highest averages is how few modern players are in the top 20
http://stats.espncricinfo.com/wi/content/records/282910.htmlVoges is an anomaly but most of the extremely high averages come from a long time ago. The modern guy who stands out on the list is Sangakkara, having that average across a huge number of games is incredible.
Even more remarkable about Sanga's record is that he was a Keeper for a lot of that. His batting average, if memory servers me correctly, improved a lot when he gave up the gloves. I have him as the greatest player of the modern era.
Is that counting Lara and Tendulkar?
Yes. Gayle too, as controversial as you may find that.
Now you're just talking shit.
My order would be Lara, Tendulkar, Sanga and then Gayle.
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