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Top 20 greatest batsmen of all time

A

Ashes81

State Vice-Captain
subshakerz said:
Viv
- Probably the best peak year in cricket history in 1976
- best batsman at the WSC
- Monster series against Lillee, Imran and Hadlee at their peak
- No real weak record in and against each country
- Unusually high SR in the 70s, far ahead of his peers
- unanimously considered the best bat of his era by all who played him

All good reasons to rate him highly.
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More than any batsman I've ever seen, Viv could almost play the big innings at will, when it really mattered.

He scored 100s for Somerset in big 1 day finals, a century in the 1979 World Cup Final and probably most famously the 100 against England in the 1st test ever held in Antigua.

His 56 ball hundred against England in 1986 was the quickest in test history and wasn't bettered for 30 years.

His 189* against England in a ODI in 1984 is one of the all time great ODI innings. Only for the fact that it wasn't a more important match, it would be the best ODI innings ever.

Viv scored 189* out of the West Indies score of 272/9. The next highest score was 26. He put on an unbeaten 10th wkt stand of 106 with Michael Holding who scored 12*.

He was the most destructive batsmen I've ever seen.

Christ knows what he'd have been like in the modern game using the modern bats.
 
B

Bolo.

International Captain
Ashes81 said:
It is indeed.

My point was when judging ATG players, how much emphasis should be given to peak performance as opposed to longevity.
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The top ICC rankings come from having high ratings and then going absolutely monster over an extremely limited number of tests- much shorter than the period of x years people typically use in assessing peaks. It is, admittedly a way of measuring peak, but it's not one many people would consider as important.
 
Coronis

Coronis

International Coach
subshakerz said:
Viv
- Probably the best peak year in cricket history in 1976
- Monster series against Lillee, Imran and Hadlee at their peak
- No real weak record in and against each country
- Unusually high SR in the 70s, far ahead of his peers
- unanimously considered the best bat of his era by all who played him

All good reasons to rate him highly.
Click to expand...
Reasons to rate him highly, sure. Not as highly as many rate him is all I’m saying. Also I wouldn’t call his series against Hadlee a “monster series”.
 
harsh.ag

harsh.ag

Cricket Web: All-Time Legend
Slifer said:
I've literally never seen anyone rank Sanga/Kallis/Dravid over Ponting. Ditto Barrington and Sobers. Ditto Sutcliffe and Hobbs....
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Have both Kallis and Dravid over Ponting, although it's pretty close, yes.
Anyone having Barrington overs Sobers is just dumb.
 
S

subshakerz

International Coach
Coronis said:
Reasons to rate him highly, sure. Not as highly as many rate him is all I’m saying. Also I wouldn’t call his series against Hadlee a “monster series”.
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In this forum, he normally gets rated top 5. That seems appropriate to me but I don't see him as outside the top 10.
 
Coronis

Coronis

International Coach
Bradman
Hobbs
Sobers
Tendulkar
Hammond
Lara
Sutcliffe
Hutton
Smith
Headley
Chappell
Gavaskar
Kallis
Sangakkara
Barrington
Richards
Ponting
Pollock
Dravid
Younis
 
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