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The ATG Teams General arguing/discussing thread

a massive zebra

International Captain
Curtley Ambrose essentially equates to Glenn McGrath with far more venom and marginally more accuracy, if a little less consistency and proficiency for consistently dismissing the opponents star batsman. McGrath probably achieved a little more, but Ambrose was a more intimidating prospect and more deadly at his best.
 
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h_hurricane

International Vice-Captain
Ambrose is one bowler on history one would watch for sheer menace. Replace any bowler in the GOAT test team(except Marshall) with him and the bowling wouldn't suffer one bit.
 

Chrish

International Debutant
if a little less consistency and proficiency for consistently dismissing the opponents star batsman. McGrath probably achieved a little more, but Ambrose was a more intimidating prospect and more deadly at his best.

Yeah during India in WI series, I remember Ambrose being economical, but didn’t really take many wickets. Tendulkar and Dravid just played him off and went after lesser bowlers.

He never really fired in all cylinders against Asian teams which was a shame.
 

h_hurricane

International Vice-Captain
Yeah during India in WI series, I remember Ambrose being economical, but didn’t really take many wickets. Tendulkar and Dravid just played him off and went after lesser bowlers.

He never really fired in all cylinders against Asian teams which was a shame.
He never really needed to, most of the times. Barbados test 1997 was the only occasion he needed to turn up, and that was brutal.
 

ataraxia

International Coach
We're talking about a non European XI therefore only the likes of akram, imran, waqar, murali etc are in contention. Only really Marshall, imran and Murali could be rated above Ambrose. And if we're going up against a European XI unless I'm mistaken Ambrose has a better record vs SENA teams than akram.
I meant over all of Earth. If it was just the top 8 of non-European bowlers then of course Ambrose, Garner, and maybe even Holding would be included.
 

Slifer

International Captain
How similar or different was Ambrose to Mcgrath? Was he able to seam it both ways? I only caught tail-end of his career and didn't watch him at his peak. One thing I do know is poms and aussies were scared shitless of him.
This. I'd give McGrath the slight edge but you lose nothing in quality if you replaced McGrath with Ambrose in any team.
 

Victor Ian

International Coach
How similar or different was Ambrose to Mcgrath? Was he able to seam it both ways? I only caught tail-end of his career and didn't watch him at his peak. One thing I do know is poms and aussies were scared shitless of him.
Menace is underated. Ambrose took a lot of wickets before the batsman faced a ball.
 

Chrish

International Debutant
It's not an outrageous claim tbh. I have often seen people comparing Mcgrath, Ambrose, Garner and Vince van der Bijl (check out his FC record). All these bowlers were very tall with awkward bounce and metronomic length.

I rank Mcg as best but that's also because I have seen more of him than the others.
 

jimmy101

Cricketer Of The Year
Top 8 non-European pacers (without putting too much though into it):

1 Marshall
2 Wasim
3 Waqar
4 Ambrose
5 Holding
6 Imran
7 Garner
8 Walsh

HM: Hall, Fazal, Kapil, Croft, Ntini, Bishop, Constantine, Roberts

Blokes like Bumrah, Philander & Rabada all have a solid chance at cracking the top 8 post-retirement.
 

Bolo.

International Captain
Curtley Ambrose essentially equates to Glenn McGrath with far more venom and marginally more accuracy, if a little less consistency and proficiency for consistently dismissing the opponents star batsman. McGrath probably achieved a little more, but Ambrose was a more intimidating prospect and more deadly at his best.
Not sure Ambrose was more accurate than Mcgrath. I think this is an impression created by Mcgrath varying his line more, not an inability to hold the same line.

Mcgrath wasn't better at dismissing a team's best bats (allowing for the fact that he was typically better at taking wickets). See some of the stats breakdowns on wicket quality. Mcgrath was extremely effective at knocking over the top order. If a team's best bats were at the top he was good at taking the big wickets. If not he wasn't. It's a coincidence created by him being a more effective new ball bowler and a less effective old ball bowler (plus competition, mostly from Warne) either way.
 

jimmy101

Cricketer Of The Year
Both bowlers were renowned for being accuracy kings. I may unnecessarily rag on McGrath all too often, but along with his freakish accuracy he had the mental aspect of cricket down to a T. That's what makes him an ATG.
 

stephen

Cricket Web: All-Time Legend
The way he worked over Warner in that t20 while commentating it says all you need to know about the great man.
 

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