DoG's Top 100 Test Bowlers Countdown Thread 100-1

[Days of Grace]

No.59

Morne Morkel (South Africa) 721

Quality Points: 638
Career Points: 83

Career: 2006-2018
Wickets: 309
Gold Performances: 3
5/20 vs. India at Centurion 2010 (17.84)
6/23 vs. New Zealand at Wellington 2012 (18.63)
5/23 vs. Australia at Cape Town 2018 (15.26)
Silver Performances: 2
Bronze Performances: 10

Overall Average/Strike-Rate/Points Per Innings: 25.40 (27.67) 55.51 (53.39) 3.92
50 Innings Peak Average/Strike-Rate/Points Per Innings (2014-2018): 21.72 49.89 4.34
Non-Home Average/Strike-Rate/Points Per Innings: 26.57 58.08 3.93
Quality Opposition Average/Strike-Rate/Points Per Innings: 26.18 56.36 3.94

Morne hit his peak in his penultimate match. Did he retire too soon?

 

[Starfighter]

Relatively low quality points seems right. As far a bowling quality I feel that there's quite a few on this list who are way ahead of him.

 

[Days of Grace]

No.58

Graeme Swann (England) 722

Quality Points: 650
Career Points: 71

Career: 2008-2013
Wickets: 255
Gold Performances: 1
6/106 vs. Sri Lanka at Colombo (PSS) 2012 (15.00)
Silver Performances: 9
Bronze Performances: 13

Overall Average/Strike-Rate/Points Per Innings: 27.14 (29.97) 61.74 (60.19) 4.95
50 Innings Peak Average/Strike-Rate/Points Per Innings (2009-2011): 24.16 57.41 5.67
Non-Home Average/Strike-Rate/Points Per Innings: 27.86 64.11 5.30
Quality Opposition Average/Strike-Rate/Points Per Innings: 29.89 66.21 4.62

 

[stephen]

Hmm Swann is a bit too high IMO.

 

[smash84]

I might have rated Saqlain higher than Swann if I hadn't really looked closely at his numbers

 

[smash84]

but great work so far DoG. I am loving it

 

[The Battlers Prince]

I wouldn’t have thought Swann would have such a good away average, he must have similar home and away adjusted figures? In raw numbers his away avg is roughly 2 runs higher than his home avg.

 

[ankitj]

Harbhajan has not appeared on the list yet. I don't think he will be left out completely. So he is going to ranked fairly high!

 

[mr_mister]

He potentially had 4 gold performances in one series

 

[Days of Grace]

I wouldn’t have thought Swann would have such a good away average, he must have similar home and away adjusted figures? In raw numbers his away avg is roughly 2 runs higher than his home avg.

Swann at home: 26.34 (28.94)
Swann away from home: 27.86 (30.88)

 

[Days of Grace]

No.57

Jeff Thomson (Australia) 722

Quality Points: 658
Career Points: 63

Career: 1972-1985
Wickets: 200
Gold Performances: 4
6/46 vs. England at Brisbane 1974 (16.59)
5/62 vs. West Indies at Melbourne 1975 (15.18)
6/50 vs. West Indies at Sydney 1976 (15.97)
5/73 vs. England at Brisbane 1982 (15.04)
Silver Performances: 4
Bronze Performances: 2

Overall Average/Strike-Rate/Points Per Innings: 27.41 (28.01) 51.30 (52.68) 4.67
50 Innings Peak Average/Strike-Rate/Points Per Innings (1974-1978): 23.40 45.34 6.02
Non-Home Average/Strike-Rate/Points Per Innings: 32.45 62.15 3.55
Quality Opposition Average/Strike-Rate/Points Per Innings: 25.47 46.73 5.23

 

[Starfighter]

What's his 6/77 against the West Indies at Bridgetown in 1978 rate?

 

[Days of Grace]

What's his 6/77 against the West Indies at Bridgetown in 1978 rate?

13.04. It was in a loss. The Brisbane 1982 performance getting over 15.00 points looks a bit weird.

Anyway, I am thinking of changing the wickets/career length ratio. It currently stands at 4:1 in favor of wickets, which some of you have pointed out favors modern-day bowlers too much. The Swann and Thomson career ratings brought it to my attention.

I'm thinking of changing it to 2:1. Which means that in the following case:

Bowler A from the 1950s: 187.5 wickets over 4000 days
Bowler B from the 2000s: 250 wickets over 2000 days

would have roughly the same career rating (discounting number of medal performances). Does this seem about right? At present, bowler A would have to take about 220 wickets to get even with Bowler B.

 

[Starfighter]

13.04. It was in a loss.

Pretty decent for a losing effort.

His last-hour spell on the first day, dismissing Greenidge, Richards, and Kallicharran, was, and still is, considered almost universally by those who saw it to be the fastest bowling ever seen in the West Indies, despite memorable spells from very fast bowlers such as Holding, Marshall and Patterson since.

Unfortunately there is no footage of the first day that I can find, though there is for the other days. He pulled a leg muscle at some point near the close and never reached that speed again.

 

[Days of Grace]

That was after he did his shoulder, right? I thought it was after his shoulder injury he was never as fast. Maybe that was a one-off at Bridgetown.

 

[Bolo]

Relatively low quality points seems right. As far a bowling quality I feel that there's quite a few on this list who are way ahead of him.

Look at the difference in peak rating between Morkel and Thompson. Enormous despite the similarly of the raw stats.


Morkel:
50 Innings Peak Average/Strike-Rate/Points Per Innings (2014-2018): 21.72 49.89 4.34

Thompson:
50 Innings Peak Average/Strike-Rate/Points Per Innings (1974-1978): 23.40 45.34 6.02

Morkels peak actually rates below Thompsons career. Im surprised he's that low. I guess competition for wickets drops him a bunch on top of actual quality issues.

 

[Singh767]

Hmm Swann is a bit too high IMO.

His away numbers disagree.

 

[trundler]

I for one am delighted to see Swann higher up.

 

[Starfighter]

That was after he did his shoulder, right? I thought it was after his shoulder injury he was never as fast. Maybe that was a one-off at Bridgetown.

It was. For some reason or another he managed to hit peak pace for a fleeting time, and never really did again,

 

[stephen]

Look at the difference in peak rating between Morkel and Thompson. Enormous despite the similarly of the raw stats.


Morkel:
50 Innings Peak Average/Strike-Rate/Points Per Innings (2014-2018): 21.72 49.89 4.34

Thompson:
50 Innings Peak Average/Strike-Rate/Points Per Innings (1974-1978): 23.40 45.34 6.02

Morkels peak actually rates below Thompsons career. Im surprised he's that low. I guess competition for wickets drops him a bunch on top of actual quality issues.

Morkel suffers from the same problem Gillespie does - most of his career wad mediocre but there were a few short patches of incredible form.