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Best Bowler in the death overs of ODI

Best Death Bowler

  • Joel Garner

    Votes: 3 15.0%

  • Wasim Akram

    Votes: 3 15.0%

  • Glenn McGrath

    Votes: 2 10.0%

  • Curtly Ambrose

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • Allan Donald

    Votes: 1 5.0%

  • Lasith Malinga

    Votes: 8 40.0%

  • Other

    Votes: 3 15.0%
  • Total voters
    20
smash84

smash84

The Tiger King
I have been recently following the series on cricinfo where they have been asking questions to a number of players from different teams about their memories about world cup, best bowler, best pinch hitter etc.

One interesting thing that I found was that most of the players mentioned Malinga as the best ODI death bowler that they have ever seen (or according to some that the best there has ever been). Now I have seen some very good death bowlers over the years starting with Joel Garner (saw very little of him actually) to Wasim, Waqar, Donald, McGrath, Walsh etc. To me they were all exceptional at the death.

I honestly haven't followed Malinga's ODI career that much but is he truly the best ever or at least in good contention for the best ever death bowler? I was quite surprised at this revelation and wanted to know people's thoughts.

Who would be your pick in this poll?
 
Migara

Migara

International Coach
Malinga bowls at death under very difficult rules. Give him a red ball, and five in the boundry and he will be the best ever death bowler. Garner was good, but batsmen didn't knew how to hit the bowlers by then other tha for a very few like Viv or Kapil. Akram and Waqar were very good because most people had no idea how to play reverse swing. In came the trio of Jones, Crowe and De Silva, and they showed how to play reverse swing. But still Wasim and Waqar were deadly accurate and were very effective post 1995 period. Donald was so good, but I can remember batsmen like Moin Khan taking him to the cleaners in death overs. His length was simply not good in last overs. Because he was super quick, he got away a lot of time. McGrath was special. Red or while, new or old, reverse or conventional he bowled that blockhole with metronomic accracy. Infact it was in early overs McGrath travelled for runs in very few occasions he did. Ambrose once again never bowled a good length at death. Luckily he and his peers demolished top orders so no one set was available during death.

Malinga is special, because he bowls with a new white ball, no reverse swing, field restrictions, and mostly to set batsman since SL's bowling power in ODIs waned dramatically since Vaas, Murali and Jayasuriya retired. But still he turns out good performances.
 
smash84

smash84

The Tiger King
Migara said:
Malinga bowls at death under very difficult rules. Give him a red ball, and five in the boundry and he will be the best ever death bowler. Garner was good, but batsmen didn't knew how to hit the bowlers by then other tha for a very few like Viv or Kapil. Akram and Waqar were very good because most people had no idea how to play reverse swing. In came the trio of Jones, Crowe and De Silva, and they showed how to play reverse swing. But still Wasim and Waqar were deadly accurate and were very effective post 1995 period. Donald was so good, but I can remember batsmen like Moin Khan taking him to the cleaners in death overs. His length was simply not good in last overs. Because he was super quick, he got away a lot of time. McGrath was special. Red or while, new or old, reverse or conventional he bowled that blockhole with metronomic accracy. Infact it was in early overs McGrath travelled for runs in very few occasions he did. Ambrose once again never bowled a good length at death. Luckily he and his peers demolished top orders so no one set was available during death.

Malinga is special, because he bowls with a new white ball, no reverse swing, field restrictions, and mostly to set batsman since SL's bowling power in ODIs waned dramatically since Vaas, Murali and Jayasuriya retired. But still he turns out good performances.
Click to expand...
Fair points that you mention but I still find it difficult to imagine that Malinga would be better than Wasim or McG at the death. Funnily enough I recall McGrath getting tonked by Moin rather than Donald. Donald had the wood over Pakistan generally (pretty much like McGrath).

1992 world cup had the 2 new white balls from each end and I still remember this peach of a delivery to Brian Lara.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ozEia8TavjQ
 
Adders

Adders

Cricketer Of The Year
smalishah84 said:
Fair points that you mention but I still find it difficult to imagine that Malinga would be better than Wasim or McG at the death.
Click to expand...
To me this is an impossible debate to have because the playing field is so different. Todays bowlers have an infinitely harder task in the last 10 overs than those of yesteryear.

I look at the names in the POLL (where the **** is Freddy btw??) and I think I could only vote for Malinga as he's is the only one that has had to contend without the aid of reverse swing and bowling to sides that think a hundred off the last ten is almost a prerequisite.
 
Cabinet96

Cabinet96

Hall of Fame Member
Aside from maybe ground fielding death batting is probably where cricket has most advanced in recent decades. Modern batsman are not only better at traditional slogging but also have a heap of new shots. You probably couldn't get away with bowling yorker after yorker these days if it wasn't reversing because the yorker can effectively go back over the bowlers head or over the keepers head and with four men maximum allowed out you can't defend everything.

It's just one of those things which is almost impossible to compare across eras.
 
Athlai

Athlai

Not Terrible
Malinga is made for the death. The death over hitting for the game of ODI cricket has changed remarkably since the dawn of T20 cricket. Sides are now routinely smashing 100 in the final 10 overs. Theres no swing, the bats are bigger, the boundaries smaller and every player in the game is expected to be able to strike the ball in the last few overs. Malinga is without a doubt the best we have today and almost certainly the best ever if we were only to imagine that the bowler was forced to play in todays conditions.

He was one of the better yorkers in the history of the game, bowls a mean bouncer, and has a cracker of a slower delivery. He can bowl express and he is by no means wayward. Pretty much the perfect storm of death bowling.

If he was born in India I expect he'd be the highest paid IPL player by a strong margin and a quarter of India's youth would have his silly haircut.
 
smash84

smash84

The Tiger King
interesting argument about him being best ever if he played earlier.

The conventional wisdom here in Pakistan is that you can't reverse the ball well if you don't have a round arm action as in the wrist coming directly over the shoulder as opposed to the side of the shoulder (which Malinga is an extreme example).

But its true enough that death batting has gone up in leaps and bounds especially with smaller grounds and few fielders outside the circle.
 
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