Best Test XI - General chat
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I voted for Donnelly as well - and Cowie!
But, on Stewie Dempster - I don't really hold with the idea that not outs inflate your average. You simply can't tell whether a not out batsman was going to be out next ball or whether he was going on to make a triple century.
Of Stewie's 15 innings, he made two hundreds and five 50s (three of which were unbeaten, so he was well set to go on). He also had a 14* so "in" but no chance to capitalise.
It's also reported that, "In the 1931 New Zealand tour of England he averaged 59.26 and scored 120 in the Test at Lord's."
He could very clearly play - and he can't be completely discounted by the likes of Mark Waugh, which is an important point!
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@dogmeat Au contraire - I ended up picking Dempster and Wright as my openers - though it was a close run thing between Wright and Turner (and Sutcliffe). I wrote quite a long post pointing out how the second half of Wright's career was statistically superior to Rigor's whole career.
I would have been happy with any of those three partnering Stewie.
Edit: Stick Little Kane in for JR Reid in that first team you posted and that's pretty close to my XI - at least, one I'm happy with.
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@MN5 No - because we have seen them.
Similar to Tom Latham, we know they're not truly world class batsmen. (Edit: that might end up being harsh on Marnus - the jury is out there).
But, reports on Dempster and Donnelly suggest that those guys probably were.
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@Chris-B said in Best Test XI - General chat:
@MN5 No - because we have seen them.
Similar to Tom Latham, we know they're not truly world class batsmen. (Edit: that might end up being harsh on Marnus - the jury is out there).
But, reports on Dempster and Donnelly suggest that those guys probably were.
I’m not convinced purely cos those two played fuck all tests and the old chestnut of an excellent first class record isn’t enough of a yardstick to off set this in my view.
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@MN5 I'm happy to take into account reports like..."In 1960, Neville Cardus expressed the opinion that Donnelly was the finest left-handed foreign batsman to play in England since World War II. Donnelly's favourite shot, a legside flick off the pads, often had spectators gasping in admiration, while some commentators suggested he was the best cover-point of all time."
But, the other side of the equation, when it comes to our current team members is...
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I reckon you'll find Mark Waugh et al being quite dismissive of our Fern all time team.
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@Chris-B said in Best Test XI - General chat:
@MN5 I'm happy to take into account reports like..."In 1960, Neville Cardus expressed the opinion that Donnelly was the finest left-handed foreign batsman to play in England since World War II. Donnelly's favourite shot, a legside flick off the pads, often had spectators gasping in admiration, while some commentators suggested he was the best cover-point of all time."
But, the other side of the equation, when it comes to our current team members is...
Today's Cricket Match | Cricket Update | Cricket News | ESPNcricinfo
Get live cricket scores, cricket updates of upcoming International, domestic and T20 matches. Catch all the latest videos, news about cricket on ESPNcricinfo.
I reckon you'll find Mark Waugh et al being quite dismissive of our Fern all time team.
He’s just angry Steve gets first dibs of the Xmas turkey each year cos his test record is better
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For me, as this is a test side and bowlers are there to get wickets, I'll leave out Vettori in favour of Wagner - We have never produced a spinner who actually could run through a side and Vettori is notable more for his longevity than his penetration (at Test level).
As for batsmen, I can't go past Crowe, Kane and Rosco for our middle order but before Kane arrived on the scene, I would have had Donnelly in the mix and would have batted Sutcliffe at 6 as post the 53 boxing day test he was never the same against pace by his own admission.
GMT still gets in but I do rate Latham - very few batsmen perform well everywhere so one series in Aus I can treat as an outlier. Stewie Dempster gets serious consideration and given he played as an opener in the days of uncovered domestic wickets, that explains to me a FC average of 45. I'll be honest, I could put Donnelly and Dempster in my side without blinking even now. Even if it meant replacing Hogan with Donnelly - which for those of you who know me, is a huge admission
