**Official** Pakistan v New Zealand in the UAE 2014

[Mike5181]

Williamson's a remarkable talent. Only Bradman, Tendulkar, and Sobers had scored more test centuries at 23 years of age.

 

[Flem274*]

I reckon he gets both underrated and overrated because he's a mature and ruthless accumulator with a good technique. He has all the gears, though through necessity has shown his Dravid gears more often than his Ponting ones.

 

[Teja.]

I reckon he'll have a very good career but end up in a league lower as a batsman than Clarke/Younis/Jayawardene by the end let alone Ponting/Dravid or Sobers/Tendulkar.

I think KW's career will be better by virtue of longevity but on quality I don't think he'll be far superior to Taylor. He'll break Crowe's records as he'll play more tests but won't be as good as him as I reckon Crowe is a borderline ATG batsman.

The reason for this IMO is I don't see KW as someone who can have monster years for a 3-4 year period. It's more common for batsmen with a more aggressive outlook but to take an example of a great, defensive No.3, Dravid was making 150+ scores for fun against all comers in the first half of the 00s in a way I don't see KW doing in his purple patch.

 

[Kippax]

Chances -

 

[Bahnz]

Hmmm, not sure whether that last one would've carried to first slip, though it's still a little weird that McCullum opted not to go with a traditional slips column given how many of his wickets Southee gets there.

 

[Blocky]

Not a great day for BJ.

 

[Howsie]

By contrast Southee and Boult are competing for some limelight with a whole host of other young stars and they're from a country who doesn't get shown on TV much unless you're playing them, so outside CW they are more likely to miss out on the hype machine. It's a bit like how no one really remembers Shakib al Hasan would walk into every test team on the planet and has a claim to being the most valuable cricketer in the world (can bowl spin effectively away from home, can bat in the top six).

Southee and Boult are on a much higher level then any other young bowlers running about IMO. Look at the top 10 at the moment, Steyn, Johnson, Harris and Anderson are all well into their 30's, Philander is 29 and Broad 28. Kemar Roach is probably the closest in terms of quality and age and he's obvs a level or two below them. After that you really don't have anyone.

Williamson on the other hand is up against Kohli, Bravo, Rahane, Smith and Root. Not to mention not being anywhere near the likes of de Villers, Amla, Clarke etc at the moment.

 

[Dan]

The last one was tough because of how straight the ball was when it was edged, but Watling should have been in position to dive for it imo. Not necessarily a 'Keeper Catch, but a half-chance that he should have had a crack at.

 

[Flem274*]

I reckon he'll have a very good career but end up in a league lower as a batsman than Clarke/Younis/Jayawardene by the end let alone Ponting/Dravid or Sobers/Tendulkar.

I think KW's career will be better by virtue of longevity but on quality I don't think he'll be far superior to Taylor. He'll break Crowe's records as he'll play more tests but won't be as good as him as I reckon Crowe is a borderline ATG batsman.

The reason for this IMO is I don't see KW as someone who can have monster years for a 3-4 year period. It's more common for batsmen with a more aggressive outlook but to take an example of a great, defensive No.3, Dravid was making 150+ scores for fun against all comers in the first half of the 00s in a way I don't see KW doing in his purple patch.

I think we're all agreed on the records thing. Even if he stays a moderately good batsman and repeats his current career record for the next ten years, he gets all the records.

im interested in your reasoning for the last part though. imo he's more likely than many to go on a monster run because he's so clinical and solid he'll take crap teams apart when he peaks and still score plenty against the good ones. he's going to increase his strike rate over time too. he's always been capable of dominating world class bowlers, like the time he took shane bond to pieces as a teenager.

getting some openers ahead of him will help with the strike rate too if it ever happens.

 

[hendrix]

Southee and Boult are on a much higher level then any other young bowlers running about IMO. Look at the top 10 at the moment, Steyn, Johnson, Harris and Anderson are all well into their 30's, Philander is 29 and Broad 28. Kemar Roach is probably the closest in terms of quality and age and he's obvs a level or two below them. After that you really don't have anyone.

Roach is on par with them IMO, except in the staying fit stakes.

 

[Athlai]

Roach is on par with them IMO, except in the staying fit stakes.

Roach is on par with Boult IMO. Southee is a level better than both.

 

[WindieWeathers]

Southee and Boult are on a much higher level then any other young bowlers running about IMO. Look at the top 10 at the moment, Steyn, Johnson, Harris and Anderson are all well into their 30's, Philander is 29 and Broad 28. Kemar Roach is probably the closest in terms of quality and age and he's obvs a level or two below them. After that you really don't have anyone.

Williamson on the other hand is up against Kohli, Bravo, Rahane, Smith and Root. Not to mention not being anywhere near the likes of de Villers, Amla, Clarke etc at the moment.

LOL thanks for that!!..i needed a good laugh after a pretty crap day!!

As for KW...he needs to produce in Aus, Eng and SA before we can really say he's the real deal..because so far the majority of his tons have come in asian tracks which have been decent for batting...but as we saw with Kohli recently those tracks can be deceiving when it comes to a batsmans technique.

 

[WindieWeathers]

Roach is on par with them IMO, except in the staying fit stakes.

Thank you for being honest Hendrix!!!...to say anything otherwise is pure madness imo.

 

[Flem274*]

i guess we'll never know windie lad, because the future of the west indies is stuffed.

 

[Blocky]

Roach can be destructive on his day, but lacks the consistency. Boult is much the same. Southee is a combination of consistency and badassness.

 

[RossTaylorsBox]

3/7 is apparently a majority.

 

[Howe_zat]

This is tedious now

 

[dermo]

that's a 1/315 appeal

 

[WindieWeathers]

Roach can be destructive on his day, but lacks the consistency. Boult is much the same. Southee is a combination of consistency and badassness.

Recently Kemar has been more than consistent tbh!!..he's getting 4 and 5fers for fun right now.

 

[Zinzan]

This is tedious now

Yup, match was decided at the toss for mine. Got to question pitches like this in test cricket though. I mean 1 wicket in 105 overs with a reasonable attack against a decent but hardly great (with the exception of Khan) batting line-up can't be good for test cricket.