Players you thought would make it

[Burgey]

I always though Warne and McGrath would make it, tbh.

 

[Richard]

Was that in 1992? Impressive if so.

 

[Burgey]

Warne after the test in SL when he took late wickets to guide us to an improbable win, McGrath pre-Ashes 93. He had a very strong rep in NSW even then.
Then I saw his efforts in the early tests of the Ashes 94-95 when some idiot told him he had to bowl outswing to be successful and thought, "Oh dear". Thankfully, he came through to have a moderately successful career.

 

[Richard]

McGrath pre-Ashes 03. He had a very strong rep in NSW even then.
Then I saw his efforts in the early tests of the Ashes 04-05 when some idiot told him he had to bowl outswing to be successful and thought, "Oh dear". Thankfully, he came through to have a moderately successful career.

I mean, most people had been raving about him for 10 years by then.

 

[Burgey]

I mean, most people had been raving about him for 10 years by then.

Post edited.

I'm getting old - one decade just seems to roll into another these days......

 

[Salamuddin]

Thing is, though, centuries aren't all of note that can be scored. In tricky circumstances (ie, against a good attack most of the time) a 70 or even a 60-odd is a very good innings.

Here's a few instances of him performing against good seamers: Glenn McGrath and Paul Reiffel certainly weren't bad; nor was Donald, Pollock, McMillan and Klusener; and his most recent innings was certainly no stroll in the park. Just a few...

.

The first of those innings was scored on a flat FerozeshahKotla wicket....he shoul;d have made more than 66 there....it's hardly a great efforst.
The second one was a creditable effort - in fact, it was quite possibly the best innings that ganguly has played !!!!
The third - please against a highly inexperienced pace attack....he should have cashed in and made a hundred.


As I said, more often than not Ganguly has failed against strong attacks and/or faced with conducive bowling conditions.


Ganguly averages 32 against Australia, 28 against Pakistan adn 30- against RSA - three of the stronger bowling attacks in world cricket. He also only averages 28 on those Kiwi greentops.....as I said, an extremely overrated player !!!!!!

 

[Burgey]

iirc he scored a ton at the Gabba last time India were here, which,given the conditions, was a pretty fair effort, even if the attack was not at full strength.

 

[Julian87]

Mark Higgs: I thought he would be a very handy ODI player for Australia.

Brad Young: Another good spin bowling all rounder who was finally getting his chance, but broke his ankle ona fence playing one of his first matches for Australia. Was never the same player afterwards. He took a hat trick in the Commonwealth Games.

Corey Richards: I thought this guy was a great Shield batsman who would later push for test selection. Played magnificently for Australia A a long time ago but his career went backwards when he needed to step up.

Nathan Bracken: Some of you might laugh because he is a very good one day bowler. But at his prime he was devastating even in the four day game, South Australians will vouch for that. But he has slowed down to an effective swing bowler who only seems to trundle in and would be not much use in the Australian team unless playing in England or NZ imo.

 

[iamdavid]

Brad Young: Another good spin bowling all rounder who was finally getting his chance, but broke his ankle ona fence playing one of his first matches for Australia. Was never the same player afterwards. He took a hat trick in the Commonwealth Games.

Corey Richards: I thought this guy was a great Shield batsman who would later push for test selection. Played magnificently for Australia A a long time ago but his career went backwards when he needed to step up..

Couldnt agree more on these two, Richards just looked a class above most of the other Shield batsman even when he wasnt making the runs he should've, he just looked like a test player with his balance/technique and the amount of time he had to play his shots.
Disapointing the way things turned out, Young aswell I thought looked a cut above (in the one day game atleast), he seemed to be able to lift South Australia when he got the ball.

 

[The Sean]

These days (and that's debatable at best). Kaif will never be 1\10th of the batsman Tendulkar was for most of his career.

And Ganguly has made runs against good pace-attacks many times, never more so than very recently in South Africa.

Hang on mate - I thought all pace attacks were rubbish these days? I'm sure that's why Hayden's average is so high...

 

[Richard]

Ganguly played a fair bit before the attacks became almost-uniformly crap, though.

He hasn't faced all that many good attacks in the last 6 years either, though that SA one in 2006\07 was indeed one. Shame it didn't get a bowl at Hayden.

 

[Richard]

The first of those innings was scored on a flat FerozeshahKotla wicket....he shoul;d have made more than 66 there....it's hardly a great efforst.
The second one was a creditable effort - in fact, it was quite possibly the best innings that ganguly has played !!!!
The third - please against a highly inexperienced pace attack....he should have cashed in and made a hundred.

Maybe he might have but for a terrible decision? Inexperienced, incidentally, the attack might have been but it actually still bowled by-and-large very well. Inexperienced does not = not good.

As I said, more often than not Ganguly has failed against strong attacks and/or faced with conducive bowling conditions.


Ganguly averages 32 against Australia, 28 against Pakistan adn 30- against RSA - three of the stronger bowling attacks in world cricket. He also only averages 28 on those Kiwi greentops.....as I said, an extremely overrated player !!!!!!

Stereotypes... Pakistan have had weak attacks plenty when he's faced them (usually one, sometimes no, decent seamers), so have Australia, so have South Africa. No-one was ever going to have much of a chance in NZ in 2002\03, and those on his other NZ tour were mostly pretty flat.

Ganguly has not faced strong pace attacks (be it on seamers or seriously powerfol attacks that are effective on any surface) especially often in his career, and not often enough to say he's failed when they came-out to play. Granted, though, that he might have done is not an impossibility.

 

[The Sean]

Ganguly played a fair bit before the attacks became almost-uniformly crap, though.

He hasn't faced all that many good attacks in the last 6 years either, though that SA one in 2006\07 was indeed one. Shame it didn't get a bowl at Hayden.

How different (and I'm not saying it was the same, I don't have time to look it up right now!) was it to the SA attack that did get a bowl at Hayden 12 months earlier?

 

[Richard]

Hugely. Dale Steyn wasn't even present for starters (with good reason - he was hopeless at that point), Pollock was (terminally, almost everyone thought - 2006\07 proved us wrong) off form, and there was the (IMO small) matter of the spinner - Harris to date has done OK.

Nel was bowling pretty well in 2005\06 but without luck, and Ntini, as ever, blew hot and cold (though he was probably better than ever in 2006\07).

 

[silentstriker]

Could it be that it was the Aussie batting that was making the SA attack look pedestrian?

 

[pasag]

Hugely. Dale Steyn wasn't even present for starters (with good reason - he was hopeless at that point), Pollock was (terminally, almost everyone thought - 2006\07 proved us wrong) off form, and there was the (IMO small) matter of the spinner - Harris to date has done OK.

Nel was bowling pretty well in 2005\06 but without luck, and Ntini, as ever, blew hot and cold (though he was probably better than ever in 2006\07).

Lol so when they played Australia they were out of form and an inferior attack but against India all of a sudden they've improved heaps. Sometimes you're too much Richard, I think you hold Hayden in such low esteem that you automatically assume the attack is bad because he made runs against them and it's getting abit silly really.

 

[Richard]

Pollock wasn't merely poor against Australia that series, though, was he?

He'd been poor for the last 4 years, against anyone and everyone.

 

[Richard]

Could it be that it was the Aussie batting that was making the SA attack look pedestrian?

No, because the bowler has the ball in his hand and hence controls proceedings. If he's good enough, the batsman has no power to make him look pedestrian.

 

[Jono]

I don't agree with Richard on the whole regarding SA's attack vs. Aus (Ntini and Nel were fine IMO, Aust just handled them well), but he's right about Pollock. There was something wrong about Pollock in both the series he had with Australia.

Yes Australia have the best batting in the world and probably handled him better than India did, but clearly Pollock wasn't right. Yet after his injury lay-off, Pollock came back with a vengeance, and tore India a new one.

 

[aussie tragic]

Gus Gilmour and David Hookes.....and of course Graeme Hick...

Oh yeah, Rodney Hogg when he took 41 wkts in his first series, bit never reached those heights again