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Gilchrist named Australia's greatest ever ODI player

Richard

Cricket Web Staff Member
Interesting call. I wouldn't have made it.

I think people are a little quick to forget the bowlers in this instance and it's a hard to go past a little-known Aussie quick called Glenn McGrath. As far as ODI bowling, he had it covered; could take early wickets with aggressive bowling and was the best death bowler Australia ever produced. How many times did McGrath bowl end up with figures like 3/35 (10)? How many times did the two or three he took early create big wins for the Aussies? Plenty. How many times did he knock over someone going hard or shut them down? He's number 1 in my book.

250 matches, 381 wickets, BBI 7/15, 22.02 avg, econ 3.88. 'Nuff said.
I believe I was the only one to mention him before the above post. :happy:

ODIs are such a batsman's game, people routinely tend to forget a good bowler can make a hell of a difference.
 

shortpitched713

International Captain
Errr, last I checked, none of those guys played for Australia and this thread was about Australia's best ODI player. McGrath my number 1 ODI player for Australia closely followed by Dean Jones, Ricky Ponting then Adam Gilchrist.
Haha. Thought you were replying to my previous post.
 

Ikki

Hall of Fame Member
5 runs is a reasonable margin I would have thought, especially when we are talking about two of the finest ODI openers ever.
Yes, but runs are not the only important thing here. The question is, are the balls saved of more value or the 5 runs? For me, it's a no brainer. That's their average score btw, both are capable of having great knocks and I'd tend to say Gilchrist with even greater ones.
 

Anil

Hall of Fame Member
Errr, last I checked, none of those guys played for Australia and this thread was about Australia's best ODI player. McGrath my number 1 ODI player for Australia closely followed by Dean Jones, Ricky Ponting then Adam Gilchrist.
what about bevan? or warne? or the waughs? they would all slot in ahead of gilchrist easily....
 

Top_Cat

Request Your Custom Title Now!
what about bevan? or warne? or the waughs? they would all slot in ahead of gilchrist easily....
On record, sure. But I guess the reason I rate Gilchrist higher than his record deserves is because I can't remember how many times Gilchrist would give the Aussies a blitz start and make an impossible chase gettable, a moderate chase easy, etc. His quick 30 or 40 off 20 balls springboarded many big scores and he was a big-match player as evidence by his record in finals of any sort but all three WC finals.
 

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