The balls of the century

[ankitj]

The balls of the century, No. 20: Monty Panesar to Sachin Tendulkar

Pitch leg, hit off, silence a city

www.thecricketmonthly.com

ESPNcricinfo is doing a feature on balls of the century. #20 is Panesar to Tendulkar in Mumbai in 2012. Please discuss which ones will make it.

PS. All puns on "balls" are disallowed.

 

[ankitj]

 

[Burgey]

Jason Krezja again a heavy favourite in this contest

 

[OverratedSanity]

Off the top of my head, the below should be on the list

Steyn to Pujara at Capetown 2010
Steyn to Clarke at Perth 2012
Murali to Ramesh at Colombo 2001
Murali to Dhoni at Delhi 2005 (doosra which spun like a nasty leg break)
Johnson to Faf at Centurion 2014 (one of the most vicious lifters off a slightly short of length delivery I've ever seen)
Harris to Cook at Perth 2013 ashes

I think broad and bresnan bowled VVS/Dravid with a couple of ridiculous deliveries which pitched middle and hit top of off in the 2011 series, not able to find those on Youtube tho

 

[ankitj]

Sreesanth to Kallis is going to feature.

Edit: At least one Bumrah delivery from West Indies tour might be a candidate too.

 

[Migara]

Off the top of my head, the below should be on the list

Steyn to Pujara at Capetown 2010
Steyn to Clarke at Perth 2012
Murali to Ramesh at Colombo 2001
Murali to Dhoni at Delhi 2005 (doosra which spun like a nasty leg break)
Johnson to Faf at Centurion 2014 (one of the most vicious lifters off a slightly short of length delivery I've ever seen)
Harris to Cook at Perth 2013 ashes

I think broad and bresnan bowled VVS/Dravid with a couple of ridiculous deliveries which pitched middle and hit top of off in the 2011 series, not able to find those on Youtube tho

Malinga bouncer to KP on a slow Galle wicket. Vaas obliterating Vauighn's middle stump in the same series. These are the ones I coulkd remember from SL.

 

[JOJOXI]

To add to balls mentioned Devendra Bishoo to Brad Haddin 2015 sticks in the memory

 

[stephen]

Cummins. Pick any 20 wickets.

 

[morgieb]

Jones to Clarke in 2005 Ashes would have to be up there.

My personal favourite after the Harris/Cook ball was the Johnson/Cook ball the Test before.

 

[stephen]

Jones to Clarke in 2005 Ashes would have to be up there.

My personal favourite after the Harris/Cook ball was the Johnson/Cook ball the Test before.

Clarke made many a pace bowler look great with his terrible leaves.

 

[h_hurricane]

Warne to Strauss in 2005 ashes has to be somewhere very high in the list.

Vaughan to Tendulkar in the 2nd test 2002 is a good shout as well.

 

[honestbharani]

Am I the only one who remembers Amit Mishra's around the wicket googly off the last ball to get Michael Clarke in the 2008 series?

 

[dontcloseyoureyes]

Obvious #1

 

[TheJediBrah]

Obvious #1

I remember that game. WI were like 0/70 off 7 overs or something and ended up being knocked over for **** all

 

[Starfighter]

Can't wait to see what contrarian **** they rank no.1.

 

[vcs]

Steyn to Pujara was spectacular
Steyn's first wicket (about half a minute into this video)

 

[vcs]

Harris to Cook should probably win it though, moving one way in the air and then the other off the pitch is as unplayable as it gets

You also need perfect camera-work to capture it

 

[Howe_zat]

That Monty delivery was amazing, the context of the match and series revolving around it, where we had been pantsed in the first test and no one expected much, and Panesar came back in and finished off one of the best batting lineups there's ever been. Only time a team has won in India in the last 15 years.

 

[Howe_zat]

The one that occurs to me as a delivery I have just never gotten over is Amir to Johnson at Headingley in 2010.

It's the second ball in the video, the first is a reminder of what Steve Smith used to look like, crazy days

 

[OverratedSanity]

That Monty delivery was amazing, the context of the match and series revolving around it, where we had been pantsed in the first test and no one expected much, and Panesar came back in and finished off one of the best batting lineups there's ever been. Only time a team has won in India in the last 15 years.

The turnaround in that series was incredible. Winning a series in India is difficult enough but coming back after you've gone 1-0 down abroad is the biggest challenge in cricket...almost never happens. It was this delivery and the one where Sachin was bowled against NZ a few months later (by Boult I think?) where it became clear that he was done. Depressing times as an Indian fan tbh.