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*Official* Warne vs Murali Discussion
- Thread starter Mr Mxyzptlk
- Start date
Faisal1985
International Vice-Captain
Yup the yorker was epic.
Even though the Akhtar bouncer looked like not THAT great..but we can't really tell how quickly it got on to him in reality....there was some good pace on it.
Even though the Akhtar bouncer looked like not THAT great..but we can't really tell how quickly it got on to him in reality....there was some good pace on it.
Top_Cat
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Warne and Lara on the turps would have been a spectacular sight, tbh.Full transcript
The two spinners, Warne and Muttiah. I would face Warne any day. You know I’d walk out and I’d know from ball one I can hit it off the middle and go on to score a hundred, yes he can get me out but Muttiah always confused me in the first half an hour-forty five minutes. I had no clue what was going on and he did not know that, I don’t know if he knew, but he didn’t know that. And um. After 45 minutes, if I was still there I could see that he was losing confidence. Which Shane Warne he gains confidence, so I can start off hitting the ball off the middle of the bat and forty five minutes goes by and Shane is gaining confidence and I think that is the difference between the two spinners. And that’s what I think gives Shane, Shane Warne the edge. I’ve had great battles with him and um we’ve gone out and had a beer and we’ve had a great time together. Sort of the same character that I, like myself, you know we play hard on the field and we enjoy ourselves off the field. And um I’ve had a great great opportunity to meet him, played my career at the same time that he did and um you know we’ve had some great great performances together.
Faisal1985
International Vice-Captain
Lara shuffled across the stumps and was watching the ball all the way...he wanted to pull it but in the end it was a bit too quick so he tried to get out of the way but he couldn't ....that's how i saw it anyways. But i wouldn't call that an ordinary bouncer..it was a pretty decent bouncer aimed at the chin area...
mohammad16
U19 Captain
Nah uh, that was a deadly bouncer, you probably have not seen that match, Pakistan was bowled out for like nothing, it was an extremely pacy pitch with a lot of zip, Shoaib was steaming in during that spell, he got Gayle with an unplayable delivery, was bowling well past 90 mph during that spell, insanely quick on a damn quick wicket.
zaremba
Cricketer Of The Year
I see you're settling in nicely
TumTum
Banned
Find out yourself.
akilana
International 12th Man
wasn't great so we removed it.
I thought it was a very good bouncer by Akhtar at the right height and great pace. I believe a genuinely good bouncer is around chest-throat height that makes the batsman move his body quite a bit even if he wants to duck.
Lara later said it was the first time he was facing Akhtar in international cricket (indeed, Akhtar bowled just 2 or 3 deliveries to Lara in his entire Test/ODI career - and all of them in that very match) and he just could not read Akhtar's delivery. Lara clearly did not "see" the ball until it was too late.
I remember seeing Lara pull/hook/duck Brett Lee's bouncers which were nearly as quick as the one bowled by Akhtar. But I guess Lara could read Lee better partly because he played Lee a lot more.
Akhtar's bouncers in general are very difficult to read, partly because of his action. This, in addition to sheer pace, makes hooking him a very difficult and dangerous gamble. I have seen only De Silva connecting a hook shot off Akhtar when he was bowling flat out at full speed (in the Asian Test Championship in 1999 I think). Ponting hooked him a couple of times but never looked convincing (either top-edges or ball hitting the logo of the bat). This over of Akhtar to Ponting (especially the first 2 deliveries) was quite possibly the quickest I have seen in the game of cricket.
Lara's toughest examination against hostile pace (that I know of), came in Trinidad against Lee in the 2003 Aus-WI Test series immediately after 2003 World Cup. Lee was at his best during those few months including the World Cup. He was bowling consistently at a fearsome pace. I remember him hitting Tendulkar twice on the shoulder in the league match between India and Australia. Just incredible pace.
Lee never was the same bowler again after his ankle surgery later that year.
Tony Cozier described that Lara-Lee battle beautifully in his report:
In the two hours to lunch, captain Lara fashioned an innings of exceptional brilliance, even by the standards of the several that have confirmed him as the game's most devastating batsman.
On the way to finally completing his first hundred in his tenth Test on the ground that has been his cricketing home since he was a boy, he had to endure a searching examination of his skill and courage from the raw speed and hostility of Brett Lee.
It was a confrontation worth the price of admission on its own. After five hours all told in the middle, that included a six and 13 fours, the champion left-hander fell to Matthew Hayden's sharp slip catch as he cut at a bouncing leg-break of Stuart MacGill.
It was a huge letdown after a morning session that advertised Test cricket at its best.
The 12,000 or so who made their way to the Oval came in the confident expectation that, this time, Lara, with 52 already in the book, would treat them to the kind of miracle he had performed only on foreign fields.
He did not disappoint.
Australia knew, as everyone with even a passing interest in the game knew, that Lara was their only threat. He had beaten them off his own bat before, twice and most famously in their last series in the Caribbean four years ago.
This time, when he entered the contest at a precarious 12 for two the previous afternoon, he brought with him the form of successive scores of 110 and 91.
The Australians went at him with everything they had. It was not until Lee was introduced after five overs from Hogg that Lara was most severely tested.
Disregarding the character of the pitch that produced a double and five singles hundreds, Lee sprinted in with malice aforethought and consistently delivered his thunderbolts in the mid-90 miles an hour range.
Lara and Sarwan took blows on the shoulder and Sarwan just managed to keep out the kind of yorker that shattered his middle and leg stumps in the first innings.
Lara had to keep bobbing and weaving and wicket-keeper Adam Gilchrist stretching to his full height to gather. Lara's skill and eye enabled him to get out of harm's way at the last moment, as deliveries whistled past his head at well over 90 miles per hour. Lesser batsmen would not have survived the ordeal.
There has not been a more lethal bouncer at the Oval since the heyday of Michael Holding and Malcolm Marshall than Lee's, that only Lara's form and keen eye saved him from decapitation.
It was hair-raising stuff that had the Oval in a ferment. It goes straight into the indelible memory bank alongside Holding's celebrated over to Geoff Boycott in 1981 and Jeff Thomson's fearsome hour and a half burst that removed Gordon Greenidge, Alvin Kallicharran and Viv Richards in 1978, both at Kensington Oval.
Lara rode the storm, taking 33 balls of Lee's seven overs and twice counter-attacking with two crisp pull shots and a confident cut, before falling to the leg spin of Stuart MacGill.
Sanz
Hall of Fame Member
And then beat on the other guy for having a great record against them.wasn't great so we removed it.
Not to forget the fact (which has been repeated zillion times) that even after all that filter Murali stands out fairly ahead of Warne.
bagapath
International Captain
though I have always preferred warne, because I am sucker for style and flair, murali's record is simply awesome. even after removing the minnows his numbers are significantly better than warne's. it is impossible to rank warne above murali in terms of pure stats. better to admit our individual preferences and take this argument beyond decimals.
vcs
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Once Kaneria had been taken for 26 in an over and got that glint in his eye, there was no better bowler...
bagapath
International Captain
after lara whacks warne for 45 minutes he will have that glint in many different parts of his body.
lara makes it clear in his very first sentence that he prefers warne to murali, as an opponent. though he gives both of them equal respect by the end, it is quite obvious that murali made it more difficult for him to settle down.
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bagapath
International Captain
i think the waqar yorker was a classic. so disappointed lara - akhthar battle lasted only two balls over 8 years of overlapping international careers
