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DoG's Top 100 Test Batsmen - The Top 25

Cabinet96

Hall of Fame Member
Second dig was probably better given the circumstances and the issue he had with his rib.

Both innings were probably hindered by negative captaincy from Smith and Dhoni though, as the match finished a reasonably high scoring draw.
 

kyear2

International Coach
South Africa's 2nd greatest batsman, has been more positive of late but still not the batsman to take the game away from the opposition in a session.

Hammond then Sangakkara is my guess.
 

Days of Grace

International Captain
South Africa's 2nd greatest batsman, has been more positive of late but still not the batsman to take the game away from the opposition in a session.

Hammond then Sangakkara is my guess.
Seriously, how many batsmen in the history of the game could have the ability to take the game away from the opposition in a session on a regular basis?
 

NUFAN

Y no Afghanistan flag
Well done Kallis. The man hasn't had a great innings in a while, which is a bit surprising. It still grinds my gears when you see a 65* be considered great in a fourth innings chasing 375.

Having watched the innings, I can assure you it wasn't great, yes he stood up and no one else did but that shouldn't mean its great when everyone else was outgunned. I honestly think there needs to be some small rating change for the current great innings under say 100 when the team still gets smashed. I'm not trying to be a ****, just offering constructive feedback if this sort of exercise was to be published or something.
 

kyear2

International Coach
Seriously, how many batsmen in the history of the game could have the ability to take the game away from the opposition in a session on a regular basis?
Probably poorly worded, but for the majority of his career Kallis was never one to take on the opposition and take over a session or strech of play.

With specific examples
If pressed; Lara, Richards, Sobers, Pollock, Ponting, Pietersen, Bradman and Gilchrist all have/had the ability and the track record to do so.
 

ankitj

Hall of Fame Member
Wow Sanga in top 10 then! Even his most ardent admirers would've guessed it at the start of this countdown.

So top 10 to contain 4 West Indians and 3 Englishmen!
 

kyear2

International Coach
The entire West Indies ATG team middle order, thats amazing.

The only difference between this and my top 10 would be to swap out Hammond and Sangakkara for Pollock and Chappell.

Great work DoG
 

centurymaker

Cricketer Of The Year
Well, I expected Kallis to be a little higher in this particular rankings due to his current high avg, but he seems to be fairly rated overall.

Anyhow
Sanga > Ponting, Kallis, Chappell, Gavaskar, Dravid, Border, Sutcliffe among others -- the list keeps growing :p
 
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Days of Grace

International Captain
Well done Kallis. The man hasn't had a great innings in a while, which is a bit surprising. It still grinds my gears when you see a 65* be considered great in a fourth innings chasing 375.

Having watched the innings, I can assure you it wasn't great, yes he stood up and no one else did but that shouldn't mean its great when everyone else was outgunned. I honestly think there needs to be some small rating change for the current great innings under say 100 when the team still gets smashed. I'm not trying to be a ****, just offering constructive feedback if this sort of exercise was to be published or something.
Yeah, I was thinking that, too.

How about if I make it that a great innings has to also be a significant innings, i.e. must be in a match where the batsman's team won, had a close draw, or a close loss.

On that criteria, Kallis would only have one great innings, which would drop him behind Ponting.
 

bagapath

International Captain
Yeah, I was thinking that, too.

How about if I make it that a great innings has to also be a significant innings, i.e. must be in a match where the batsman's team won, had a close draw, or a close loss.

On that criteria, Kallis would only have one great innings, which would drop him behind Ponting.
will fix a lot of minor bugs along with it i guess. like keeping sanga and headley out of the top 10. cant believe they are ranked above greg chappell. ****! i am skipping my breakfast in protest!
 

NUFAN

Y no Afghanistan flag
Yeah, I was thinking that, too.

How about if I make it that a great innings has to also be a significant innings, i.e. must be in a match where the batsman's team won, had a close draw, or a close loss.

On that criteria, Kallis would only have one great innings, which would drop him behind Ponting.
I'm not 100% sold on that too. Take for example Clarke's 151 vs SA, now that was an excellent knock (I'm sure everyone would agree) but Australia end up getting easily beaten by 8 wickets, In the Kallis game you look at the team scores: 439, 374, 309. It was a pretty decent wicket to bat on and there were 6 scores above 65. There wasn't a single point in his innings where we were watching a great knock. He was on 29* (85) when the team were 8 down - he didn't give up, he started to bat a bit more aggressively and boosted his career record in his partnership with Ntini, but I don't know it just wasn't anything special which I think it should be to be called great. This isn't an attack on Kallis, I think Chanderpaul may have had one too.

On second thought, for fourth innings I definitely agree with you. Great knocks should only be wins, close draws or close losses. I'm not sure about third innings though.. Again brilliant work mate.
 
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Quaggas

State Captain
Yeah, I was thinking that, too.

How about if I make it that a great innings has to also be a significant innings, i.e. must be in a match where the batsman's team won, had a close draw, or a close loss.

On that criteria, Kallis would only have one great innings, which would drop him behind Ponting.
Of course, what you really need to do is vary the functions and weights to maximize Kallis' score and then see where everyone else falls. Solver will help.
 

marc71178

Eyes not spreadsheets
He just misses the cut primarily due to his somewhat low T/O average, 88% of his overall average.
So if I'm getting this right it means that he is actually a bit of a minnow basher then?

Of the top 50 who has the lowest T/O average out of interest?
 

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