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Steve Smith vs Viv Richards

Who is the better test batsman?

  • Total voters
    65
S

subshakerz

Hall of Fame Member
Coronis said:
All I’m doing is responding to your post, they performed similarly in series against each other during Viv’s peak, and the Windies definitely had superior bowling.
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When WI had superior bowling in 79/80, Chappell averaged 45. His big runs were scored in 76 against only Roberts and a raw Holding.
 
The_CricketUmpire

The_CricketUmpire

U19 Captain
subshakerz said:
Yeah this is why I feel uncomfy giving Smith the title as the best since Bradman given that I don't feel he has been as tested as I would have liked.

I would be interested to see how McGrath would work out someone with Smith's technique. Not really weak outside off.
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Would love to see how Wasim Akram, Waqar Younis, Allan Donald, Shaun Pollock, Courtney Walsh and Curtly Ambrose - how they would bowl to Smith. Would be some great battles.
 
The Sean

The Sean

Cricketer Of The Year
subshakerz said:

World Series Cricket player records - Wikipedia

en.m.wikipedia.org en.m.wikipedia.org

Viv averaged slightly more but Chappell did very well also.
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Those numbers are wrong - Richards averaged 55.69 during WSC Supertests, slightly less than Chappell. Wikipedia is quoting an incorrectly calculated number from a cricinfo article.

You can even see on the table that Wikipedia shows - 1281 runs from 25 innings with two not-outs. The 58.23 averaged listed there would require three not-outs. Bafflingly, they got their sums wrong.
 
The Sean

The Sean

Cricketer Of The Year
Interestingly (though not relevant to this comparison), Cricket Archive only credit Viv with 1,275 runs in WSC SuperTests rather than the traditionally accepted total of 1,281.

The reason for this I have found is a discrepancy in sources between the dismissals of Richards and Jim Allen in the second innings of the Sydney SuperTest against WSC Australia in January 1979. Cricinfo records Richards being bowled by Lillee for 10, with Allen caught by Greg Chappell off Lillee's bowling for 4. Cricket Archive, however, has those two scores and dismissals the other way around.

Howstat confuses things further by going somewhere in between - recording Richards as scoring 10 and Allen scoring 4 the same as Cricinfo, but that both men were bowled Lillee!
 
The Sean

The Sean

Cricketer Of The Year
PEWS has previously said he doesn't like to rate players too highly while they are still playing, or words to that effect, so it might be something like that.
 
Coronis

Coronis

International Coach
ankitj said:
CW ranked Richards at #5, Hutton at #7, Smith at #10 not that long ago.

CW's Top 50 Test Batsmen. 2022 Results

Firstly, my thanks @gftw for initiating the voting thread and thanks to all who contributed votes and comments. With voting and comments dwindling, it was felt we should stop at a final Top 50. I have added stats to the list as a matter of interest and for discussion points and here is the...
www.cricketweb.net
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The Sean said:
PEWS has previously said he doesn't like to rate players too highly while they are still playing, or words to that effect, so it might be something like that.
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Probably something in the back of peoples minds for this exercise too, and I do think it is a bit hard to rate current players against players with completed careers.
 
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