Top individual performances of the decade

[Beamer]

Steve Harmison (7/12) and Jerome Taylor (5/12) produced memorable bowling performances at Sabina Park during the last decade.

IMHO Taylor's was better as he was facing a stronger batting lineup and the pitch was doing much less, but they were both spells of extremely high quality.

Best Innings from Dravid were his two fifties in the fourth Test in the West Indies. Insanely good, I've never seen a better innings from him (or from most players).

Nobody seems to mention that performance and yet that was some of the best batsmanship I have seen. That pitch was seriously difficult for batting and Jerome Taylor was bowling magnificently but Dravid's bat was extremely broad. In the same match I seem to remember Ramdin threatening to chase down the target with an excellent innings as well.

 

[Days of Grace]

For New Zealand:

Tests: Batting
Nathan Astle's 222 vs. England in 2002

Tests: Bowling
Lean pickings here but I'll say either Shane Bond vs. West Indies in 2006/Shane Bond vs. Pakistan in 2009, or Chris Martin vs. South Africa in 2004.

ODIs: Batting
Stephen Fleming's 130ish not out vs. South Africa chasing down 300+ in the 2003 world cup

ODIs: Bowling
Shane Bond destroying Australia at Adelaide on Australia day 2002

 

[DingDong]

AWTA.

222* ftw

yeah +1

 

[bryce]

Except it wasn't not out...

 

[tooextracool]

Definitely the best from an England player, good call

Err not really, if this thread is about 'best individual performance' then it doesnt get much better than this:

HowSTAT! Match Scorecard

Graham Thorpe scored nearly half the runs of the entire England side, without being dismissed, to win the deciding game and the series in SL. This remains the only time England have won a series in SL this decade.

 

[Mr Mxyzptlk]

One of the best series performances has to be Lara against Sri Lanka in 2001. Scoring half his team's total with just half a batsman for support is a helluva thing.

From a West Indian perspective, Courtney Walsh also had a couple of magnificent series toward the end of his career. Still looked a top class bowler when he retired.

 

[Ikki]

No. It was because Freddie was big in matches won by England.

4th Test: England v Australia at Nottingham, Aug 25-28, 2005 | Cricket Scorecard | Cricinfo.com

2nd Test: England v Australia at Birmingham, Aug 4-7, 2005 | Cricket Scorecard | Cricinfo.com

Freddie was the 3rd Highest scorer in the series and second Highest wicket taker, he was involved in some of the most crucial batting partnerships and bowled against the better batting attack.

Debatable considering just how woeful our batting attack was in that series. Same goes for their batsmen scoring runs off our bowlers. Freddie got it because they won and he was one of the best players in the series. You make it out as if Flintoff did something personally that Warne didn't for those wins; it was their respective teams that forced the results. In those two links you have Warne taking 8 and 10 wickets respectively, also getting close to a 50 with the bat in both matches too.

 

[bagapath]

for india

tests

batting: laxman's 281; bowling: bhajji in chennai in the same series vs aus in 2001 - two performances that won the seminal series for india

odi

batting: sachin's 98 in the WC game vs pak in 2003; bowling: nehra's spell against eng in the same tournament - both responsible for india reaching the finals after 20 years

 

[Sanz]

Debatable considering just how woeful our batting attack was in that series. Same goes for their batsmen scoring runs off our bowlers. Freddie got it because they won and he was one of the best players in the series. You make it out as if Flintoff did something personally that Warne didn't for those wins; it was their respective teams that forced the results. In those two links you have Warne taking 8 and 10 wickets respectively, also getting close to a 50 with the bat in both matches too.

The batting attack was woeful because of the Superior bowling by England. Before the series no one would have even suggested about the batting strength of Aus being weaker than Eng.

Regarding Flintoff, you are completely missing the point, Freddie was the allrounder of the series, he could have walked into either team based on his batting or bowling alone.

 

[Cruxdude]

Laxman 281. One of the greatest innings I have seen.

Harbhajan in the same series was good enough to get a wicket every ball.

 

[Ikki]

The batting attack was woeful because of the Superior bowling by England. Before the series no one would have even suggested about the batting strength of Aus being weaker than Eng.

Regarding Flintoff, you are completely missing the point, Freddie was the allrounder of the series, he could have walked into either team based on his batting or bowling alone.

England's bowlers were good, but Australia were pretty ****. What was more surprising is how bad Gillespie was and that McGrath was dumb enough to injure himself.

 

[GIMH]

Err not really, if this thread is about 'best individual performance' then it doesnt get much better than this:

HowSTAT! Match Scorecard

Graham Thorpe scored nearly half the runs of the entire England side, without being dismissed, to win the deciding game and the series in SL. This remains the only time England have won a series in SL this decade.

Yeah, fair call, I was thinking mainly of bowlers when I made that post

 

[Xuhaib]

Kamran Akmal has taken an early lead for this decade.

 

[UncleTheOne]

Err not really, if this thread is about 'best individual performance' then it doesnt get much better than this:

HowSTAT! Match Scorecard

Graham Thorpe scored nearly half the runs of the entire England side, without being dismissed, to win the deciding game and the series in SL. This remains the only time England have won a series in SL this decade.

this performance was just as good.

3rd Test: West Indies v England at Bridgetown, Apr 1-3, 2004 | Cricket Scorecard | Cricinfo.com

119* out of a total of 226. thorpe was just godly at times. so controlling at the crease.

 

[Migara]

That should be Ashley Giles to Damien Martyn at Old Trafford (I think) 2005.

Or how about the snorter that Malinga sent to Pietersen?

 

[aussie]

Or how about the snorter that Malinga sent to Pietersen?

Yea one of the best balls of the last decade without a doubt.

 

[Migara]

I would rate Shoaib Akthar's spell against Aussies at Colombo very highly as well. It was sheer brute force.

 

[tooextracool]

this performance was just as good.

3rd Test: West Indies v England at Bridgetown, Apr 1-3, 2004 | Cricket Scorecard | Cricinfo.com

119* out of a total of 226. thorpe was just godly at times. so controlling at the crease.

Yeah I definitely thought about that one as well. I didnt have the chance to see the one in SL because they didnt broadcast that series in India, but I did get a chance to watch his innings against the WI and that was one of the best pieces of batting I have seen in my 18 years or so of watching. However, the attack that he faced in SL was a cut above and the result of the game was historically more significant so I left the other one out.

 

[flibbertyjibber]

Flintoff in the ashes 05 was superb but for me the best performance i have seen was the Smith ton in 08 which won the match for S.A. I might not like the man but that was a magnificent innings which was as good as Gooch at Headingley in 91.

 

[subshakerz]

Individual innings: Laxman's 281 by a long way.

Spinner's performance: Murali's mesmerizing spell at Kotla followed closely by Harbajan's in Calcutta

Fast bowler's spell: Shoaib's against Australia in Colombo followed closely by McGrath's in Lord's in 2005