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

[OverratedSanity]

Pretty sure England fielded an attack of Trueman-Tyson-Laker/Lock + Statham a couple of times in the Ashes in the late 50s. And Australia had Davidson and Benaud too. High quality attacks all over the place in that era.

 

[OverratedSanity]

Pretty sure England fielded an attack of Trueman-Tyson-Laker/Lock + Statham a couple of times in the Ashes in the late 50s. And Australia had Davidson and Benaud too. High quality attacks all over the place in that era.

This match has England with Trueman-Tyson-Laker-Bailey vs Australia with Davidson-Lindwall-Meckiff-Benaud.

5th Test, England tour of Australia at Melbourne, Feb 13-18 1959 | Match Summary | ESPNCricinfo

 

[AndrewB]

Error of hindsight, hmmph. Bedser would've been 2 early for the other 3 I think. Trueman and Laker often did. Trueman-Statham-Laker-Lock certainly did though.

They did overlap (Trueman was the last to debut in 1952, Bedser continued until 1955) but at that time England usually picked two spinners and Bailey as the third pace bowler.

 

[smash84]

Yep, I was a bit out but knew that Marshall and Ambrose had played some matches with two other ATG bowlers (Walsh and Bishop). Roberts and Marshall overlapped with Holding and Garner (though I'm not sure all 4 played together).

Ambrose, Walsh, Bishop and Marshall played a number of matches.

This one is notable for having some ATG bowlers on both sides - Ambrose, Bishop, Walsh, Marshall vs Imran, Wasim, Waqar and Qadir:
This is probably the game with the largest collection of highest rated bowlers in history.
3rd Test, West Indies tour of Pakistan at Lahore, Dec 6-11 1990 | Match Summary | ESPNCricinfo

Imran what a gun. Performes so well with bat and ball in this match. Helped pakistan save this match, despite being right towards the end of his career

 

[Starfighter]

This match has England with Trueman-Tyson-Laker-Bailey vs Australia with Davidson-Lindwall-Meckiff-Benaud.

5th Test, England tour of Australia at Melbourne, Feb 13-18 1959 | Match Summary | ESPNCricinfo

Tyson was way past it 1959. He said he was bowing about Bailey's pace most of the time by then.

 

[Bolo]

Still and all, a statistical analysis of the kind that DoG is doing is probably more 'correct' than subjective rankings;
less arbitrary and whimsical than one based purely on personal opinions and bias (Warne vs Murali, anyone?).

Awta, although this exercize comes closer to ranking the best career than the most talented bowler. Nobody thinks of Ashwin as a better bowler than Bond, but he has had an undeniably better career.

 

[Days of Grace]

No.44

Andy Roberts (West Indies) 740

Quality Points: 679
Career Points: 61

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yG0zHieeXqw

Career: 1974-1983
Wickets: 202
Gold Performances: 2
7/54 vs. Australia at Perth 1975 (19.62)
6/37 vs. England at Manchester 1976 (15.58)
Silver Performances: 4
Bronze Performances: 7

Overall Average/Strike-Rate/Points Per Innings: 25.24 (25.61) 54.09 (55.11) 4.55
50 Innings Peak Average/Strike-Rate/Points Per Innings (1974-1978): 23.90 49.09 5.20
Non-Home Average/Strike-Rate/Points Per Innings: 23.62 52.32 4.71
Quality Opposition Average/Strike-Rate/Points Per Innings: 22.69 52.17 4.77

You called it. Here he is. The first off the production line of great West Indian fast bowlers that extended to the end of the 1980s. Roberts has great stats. They are just not quite at the level of the truly great fast bowlers and he only took 202 test wickets. This would have been greatly increased if World Series cricket matches were official (he took 50 wickets in 13 matches at 24.14). On the other hand, he wasn't quite the same menacing presence he had been from 1979 onwards. He was gradually overshadowed by Garner, Croft, Holding, and finally Marshall.

His wikipedia entry really should be added to. There is much information on the narrative of his career.

Pre-World Series: 27 matches, 134 wickets. 24.18 49.66 5.09
Post-World Series: 20 matches, 68 wickets. 27.33 62.83 3.77

 

[jaideep]

Fazal mahmood next?

 

[Days of Grace]

No.43

Peter Pollock (South Africa) 743

Quality Points: 700
Career Points: 43

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t3T8KASh8hM

Career: 1961-1970
Wickets: 116
Gold Performances: 1
6/38 vs. New Zealand at Durban 1961 (16.08)
Silver Performances: 6
Bronze Performances: 3

Overall Average/Strike-Rate/Points Per Innings: 23.64 (24.19) 48.38 (56.22) 4.63
50 Innings Peak Average/Strike-Rate/Points Per Innings (1961-1970): 23.62 48.41 4.70
Non-Home Average/Strike-Rate/Points Per Innings: 21.50 43.28 6.08
Quality Opposition Average/Strike-Rate/Points Per Innings: 25.01 48.67 4.60

Like his brother, Peter Pollock can count himself as one of the most unfortunate cricketers as his career was cut short due to politics and not injury or form loss. An outstanding away record and a sizeable adjustment to his strike-rate helps to boost his ranking.

He went on tours to England and Australia with the rest of the world XI in the early 1970s but struggled, only playing 3 matches and taking 3 wickets at 64.25. Maybe the fire had already gone out by the time South Africa were banned.

 

[ankitj]

Pleasantly surprised to see Peter Pollock getting ranked so high. Often Neil Adcock who finished at #63 is rated above Peter Pollock.

 

[Days of Grace]

No.42

John Snow (England) 744

Quality Points: 683
Career Points: 61

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kl4Oy73D3sk

Career: 1965-1976
Wickets: 202
Gold Performances: 2
7/49 vs. West Indies at Kingston 1968 (16.26)
7/40 vs. Australia at Sydney 1971 (17.86)
Silver Performances: 3
Bronze Performances: 5

Overall Average/Strike-Rate/Points Per Innings: 26.00 (26.67) 51.81 (59.51) 4.28
50 Innings Peak Average/Strike-Rate/Points Per Innings (1967-1972): 22.90 46.64 4.76
Non-Home Average/Strike-Rate/Points Per Innings: 19.56 39.93 6.16
Quality Opposition Average/Strike-Rate/Points Per Innings: 24.46 47.38 4.95

John Snow has very similar statistics to Andy Roberts. Where he beats Roberts (and most other bowlers) is in his awesome record away from home (ranked at no.5 in the top 100). His bowling lead England to series wins in West Indies and Australia, which would become rare feats after he retired. Because of his prickly personality and anti-establishment persona (Sidney Barnes and Fred Trueman also shared similar traits) he missed a number of matches in which he would have undoubtedly increased his wicket tally.

 

[stephen]

Also, he knows nothing.

 

[harsh.ag]

Topsy turvy ride, this.

 

[ankitj]

Is Larwood going to miss out completely from this countdown?

 

[Starfighter]

Is Larwood going to miss out completely from this countdown?

Too short a career at an average of 28, and only one really good series. He never got the opportunity to get easy wickets against WI and NZ. When people put him in England XIs it's a lot more reputation based than is often the case.

 

[Starfighter]

Not too hard to get my dad to wax lyrical about how good John Snow was. I've actually tried copying his bowling action before, with mixed success.

 

[Burgey]

He had a great action. Top bowler who didn’t play enough

 

[Days of Grace]

No.41

Ray Lindwall (Australia) 748

Quality Points: 675
Career Points: 73

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GD8Afg4rbcQ

Career: 1946-1960
Wickets: 228
Gold Performances: 4
7/63 vs. England at Sydney 1947 (16.44)
7/38 vs. India at Adelaide 1948 (17.49)
6/20 vs. England at The Oval 1948 (15.09)
7/43 vs. India at Chennai 1956 (15.48)
Silver Performances: 3
Bronze Performances: 5

Overall Average/Strike-Rate/Points Per Innings: 23.71 (23.03) 53.69 (59.87) 3.91
50 Innings Peak Average/Strike-Rate/Points Per Innings (1948-1953): 20.64 47.15 4.86
Non-Home Average/Strike-Rate/Points Per Innings: 24.35 54.28 3.87
Quality Opposition Average/Strike-Rate/Points Per Innings: 23.33 54.79 4.37

If points could be awarded for aesthetics, Ray Lindwall would be ranked a lot higher. As can be seen in the video, he had a beautiful bowling action. However, like Miller, he is let down by a relatively underwhelming points per innings (he only took 3.74 wickets per match). He returned for 5 matches in 1959-1960 at 37 years old after being out of the national side for three years.

If he had finished like Miller in 1956, he would have these career stats: 22.79 51.98 4.12, enough for an overall rating of 763.

This comeback cost Lindwall a higher ranking.

 

[mr_mister]

Is Larwood going to miss out completely from this countdown?

No chance he makes it at this point

 

[stephen]

Methinks that may be a flaw in this particular analysis. Still, i think that's probably close to right for him.