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

[Borges]

Poignantly, O'Reilly and Grimmett rank almost next to each other in this analysis. A fair reflection on their careers, IMHO.

Without this match he would have finished on 802 points, only good enough for 26th position.

Just shows how narrow the differences are when it comes to evaluating these top bowlers.

 

[ankitj]

Donald will most likely miss out on top 10. One among Lillee, Waqar and Imran will be the other one to miss out. Most likely Lillee because other 2 had superb peaks.

O'Reilly finished ahead of his great partner-in-crime Grimmett not only due to his stronger record against England but mainly because he gained massive career length points by playing a solitary match against New Zealand after the war where he took 8/33. Without this match he would have finished on 802 points, only good enough for 26th position.

So my prediction that Grimmett will finish ahead of O'Reilly almost came true.

 

[stephen]

I'm tipping Waqar up next.

 

[Migara]

I'm tipping Waqar up next.

Waqar below Lillee would be insane.

 

[Starfighter]

Waqar below Lillee would be insane.

Would it really? Both have their pluses and minuses in their records.

 

[Burgey]

Waqar below Lillee would be insane.

Not in Australia. Bowled like a drain here pretty much every time he toured. Mirror image of DK in that regard, with a bigger sample size.

 

[Burgey]

Poignantly, O'Reilly and Grimmett rank almost next to each other in this analysis. A fair reflection on their careers, IMHO.




Just shows how narrow the differences are when it comes to evaluating these top bowlers.

Thank you Borges, for bringing poignancy back to CW.

 

[ankitj]

Lillee should have lot of gold performances so that might help his ranking.

BTW, surprised to see that O'Reilly has only 2 gold performances for someone ranked so high on the list. But then he also had a very short career.

 

[OverratedSanity]

Lillee's PPI will be very high. His WPM is among the highest, especially when you consider he had much more competition for wickets than Hadlee/Murali.

 

[stephen]

Lillee's PPI will be very high. His WPM is among the highest, especially when you consider he had much more competition for wickets than Hadlee/Murali.

Lillee had around half his career with good bowling support and the other half of his career with rubbish bowling support.

 

[Starfighter]

Lillee had around half his career with good bowling support and the other half of his career with rubbish bowling support.

Which halves?

 

[stephen]

Which halves?

The half of his career where Thomo was at the other end was the half with good bowling support.

 

[Starfighter]

The half of his career where Thomo was at the other end was the half with good bowling support.

This is the first time I've been told that Walker, Dymock, Gilmour, Hogg, Lawson, Pascoe, Alderman, Rackemann and Mallett weren't good support.

 

[morgieb]

This is the first time I've been told that Walker, Dymock, Gilmour, Hogg, Lawson, Pascoe, Alderman, Rackemann and Mallett weren't good support.

Yeah there's a middle ground between Marshall support (where you have two ATG's supporting you) and Hadlee support (where all your fellow bowlers were kinda ****).

 

[Burgey]

The half of his career where Thomo was at the other end was the half with good bowling support.

Thommo bowled with Lillee for 2.5 seasons before WSC then again for about a season after WSC iirc. Lillee was injured in 82/83 for all but one test of the Ashes which Thommo played in.

 

[stephen]

So here's the thing.

Lillee played 70 tests. Thompson played 26 of those. Mallet 22 and Walker 20. 29 of Lillee's 70 tests (roughly half) none of those three played.

For example, these matches:

1st Test, Australia tour of England and Scotland at Manchester, Jun 8-13 1972 | Match Summary | ESPNCricinfo
1st Test, New Zealand tour of Australia at Brisbane, Nov 28-30 1980 | Match Summary | ESPNCricinfo
1st Test, Australia tour of England at Nottingham, Jun 18-21 1981 | Match Summary | ESPNCricinfo
3rd Test, Pakistan tour of Australia at Adelaide, Dec 9-13 1983 | Match Summary | ESPNCricinfo

There were a few decent bowlers, but certainly nowhere near great. Pascoe, Alderman, Lawson and Hogg. Hardly names that set the world alight.

 

[Starfighter]

There were a few decent bowlers, but certainly nowhere near great. Pascoe, Alderman, Lawson and Hogg. Hardly names that set the world alight.

Alderman out bowled Lillee in '81, Lawson was averaging 24 until he did his back in, Pascoe averaged 26 and Hogg took more wickets in a series than Lillee ever did.

 

[ankitj]

Kapil Dev takes the cake for bowling with bad support. He had Karsan Ghavari and Chetan Sharma as "fast" bowlers, and then trundlers like Mohinder Amarnath and Madan Lal.

 

[Starfighter]

Kapil Dev takes the cake for bowling with bad support. He had Karsan Ghavari and Chetan Sharam as "fast" bowlers, and then trundlers like Mohinder Amarnath and Madan Lal.

I think India's spin attack and its variations in composition were a bit more important.

 

[OverratedSanity]

I think India's spin attack and its variations in composition were a bit more important.

Spin attack wasn't too flash either. The quartet all retired before Kapil's time.