Diminishing Draft Voting thread

[CricAddict]

One simple rule for the draft

You need to pick 6 batsmen in diminishing order of runs and 4 bowlers in diminishing order of wickets. For the 11th player, you are free to choose either a batsman at lower runs or bowler at lower wickets than your previous pick to form your final team. Keeper to be chosen within the batsmen criteria.

If you are picking on the basis of wickets, you will have to keep the player from 7-11 and if you are picking on the basis of runs, it will be 1-7. So, 7th position alone can be any one.

 

[CricAddict]

The addicts	Fuller Pilch	CricZO XI	srbhkshk	Line and Length	trundler	Bitmap	ataraxia
Glenn Turner	01 WG Grace (c) 4	Gordon Greenidge/	G Gooch	M.Hayden /	Sunil Gavaskar	Graeme Smith	1) Virender Sehwag /
Saeed Anwar	02 Bob Simpson 7	Geoffrey Boycott /	V Merchant	G.Kirsten /	Hanif Mohammad	Victor Trumper	2) Eddie Barlow / o
Steve Smith (vc)	03 Kane Williamson	Neil Harvey /	K Barrington	K.Sangakarra /	Rohan Kanhai	Devon Conway	3) Lindsay Hassett* /
Duleepsinghji	04 Marnus Labuschagne	Viv Richards / o	S Tendulkar	V.Kohli /	Javed Miandad	Jacques Kallis	4) Martin Crowe /
Douglas Jardine (c)	05 Martin Donnelly	Doug Walters / o	Y Khan	M.Hussey /	Clem Hill*	Denis Compton	5) Vijay Hazare /
Adam Gilchrist (wk)	06 AB De Villiers (wk)	BJ Watling / +	Ranjitsinhji	A.Stewart (wk) /	Warwick Armstrong 5	Allan Border*	6) Mohammad Yousuf /
Aubrey Faulkner (5)	07 Shakib Al Hasan 6	Chris Cairns / o	Q De Kock +	A.Flintoff /o	Denis Lindsay+	John Waite+	7) Jock Cameron + /
Hedley Verity (4)	08 Wasim Akram 1	Richie Benaud o / (c)	K Rabada	I.Botham o/	Pat Cummins 3	Peter Pollock	8) Clarrie Grimmett o
Malcolm Marshall (1)	09 Ryan Harris 3	Wes Hall o	D Underwood	D.Steyn o	Hugh Tayfield 4	Hugh Trumble	9) Andy Roberts o
Alec Bedser (3)	10 Jim Laker 5	Fred Trueman o	W Younis	F.Tyson o	Curtly Ambrose 1	Michael Holding	10) Allan Donald o
Jeff Thomson (2)	11 Dennis Lillee 2	Colin Croft o	M Asif	L.Gibbs o	Neil Adcock 2	Shoaib Akhtar	11) Glenn McGrath o
ankitj	The All Conditions All-Rounders	Honest Hunks	Pothas	AndrewB	Teuton	Patience	JOJOXI
Jack Hobbs	01. Colin McDonald	Alastair Cook	Bruce Mitchell	Len Hutton	Justin Langer	Bill Lawry	Bill Brown
Bill Ponsford	02. Herbert Sutcliffe	Michael Slater	Arthur Morris	Barry Richards	Sid G Barnes	Stewie Dempster	Conrad Hunte
Frank Worrell (5) (c)	03. Peter May *	Trevor Goddard (4)	Wally Hammond	George Headley	Ricky Ponting c	Charles Macartney	Rahul Dravid
Dudley Nourse	04. Joe Root	Aravinda De Silva (8)	Greg Chappel	Brian Lara	Babar Azam	Kevin Pietersen	Norm O'Neill
Stan McCabe (6)	05. Andy Flower +	Michael Clarke (c) (7)	Everton Weekes	Graeme Pollock	Mahela Jayawardene	Inzamam-ul-Haq	Shivnarine Chanderpaul
Les Ames (wk)	06. Tony Greig (6)	Jonny Bairstow (wk)	Garry Sobers*	Steve Waugh	Ted Dexter	Clive Llyod*	Ben Stokes (c)
VVS Laxman	07. Jack Gregory (5)	Kapil Dev (vc) (2)	Alan Knott+	Clyde Walcott+	Jeff Dujon	Rishabh Pant+	MS Dhoni (wk)
Richard Hadlee (2)	08. Shaun Pollock (2)	Yasir Shah (6)	Anil Kumble	Monty Noble*	Ravichandran Ashwin	Keith Miller	Ray Lindwall
Joel Garner (3)	09. Ravindra Jadeja (4)	Mitchell Johnson (3)	John Snow	Maurice Tate	Alan Davidson	Imran Khan	Harold Larwood
Sydney Barnes (1)	10. Vernon Philander (1)	Muttiah Muralitharan (5)	Shane Bond	Brian Statham	Jasprit Bumrah	Mike Procter	Shane Warne
Subhash Gupte (4)	11. Bill Johnston (3)	Jimmy Anderson (1)	Bob Willis	Jack Cowie	Courtney Walsh	Tiger O’Reilly	Ian Bishop

 

[CricAddict]

Dear drafters, please copy-paste your write-up to this thread as well so that it will be good for new voters outside the draft to view.

 

[CricAddict]

My team's strength lies in my 5 ATG bowlers.. Led by the best bowler of all-time, Marshall, he has 4 other best of the ATG bowlers to support with Thomson providing the pace, Bedser bowling the hard overs, Verity and Faulkner then combining to strangle the teams with their quality left-arm spin and leg spin combination. To me, this attack has it all to succeed in all conditions. Plus, they can all hold a bat too.

Having said that, the batting is no slouch either. It will be led by one of the best batsmen of all-time, Steve Smith and unarguably best keeper-bat, Adam Gilchrist. Anwar and Turner are the best openers of their respective countries and Duleepsinghji with a test average of 58 providing solid base at 3.

Last but not the least, Aubrey Faulkner is arguably among the top 5 all-rounders in history and they will all be ably led by Douglas Jardine who can conjure strategies to defeat the greatest of the greats.

The team has good left-right combinations, all-round bowling variety, representation from 7 test countries, decent number of ATGs and a team to succeed in all conditions.

The addicts

1. Glenn Turner
2. Saeed Anwar
3. Duleepsinghji
4. Steve Smith (vc)
5. Douglas Jardine (c)
6. Adam Gilchrist (wk)
7. Aubrey Faulkner (5)
8. Hedley Verity (4)
9. Malcolm Marshall (1)
10. Alec Bedser (3)
11. Jeff Thomson (2)

 

[ankitj]

Whose is all conditions all-rounders team?

 

[honestbharani]

Addicts - A very good balanced side but lacking some X factor, for mine.
FP - Amazing bowling attack.
Criczo - Amazing batting lineup
Serbie - solid side but again lacking any X factor, for mine.
L&L - great side but way too many left handers in that top 6
trundler - solid, not flashy
Bitmap - a very interesting side but again not quite top tier for me
Ataraxia - excellent side, love the balance of the greats across the side
ankit - good side but Laxman at 7 just skews it to the second half of this draft
all conditions AR - excellent side, strength in numbers
Hunks - I love my side but I expect it to waver between solid to tame as far as this draft goes, in other voters' eyes.
Pothas - excellent side
AndrewB - amazing middle order but the 5th bowler lets this side down IMO
Teuton - great side but second spinner not good enough for an ATG side IMO
Patience - allrounders galore, but only as bowlers, skews the side a bit
Jojo - good side but again the second spinner is a letdown


Overall, I will have to go for -

ataraxia
pothas
all conditions AR
FP
HUnks
criczo

 

[honestbharani]

Honest Hunks - Write-up


A very modern-ish team but full of exciting and quality test match players through and through.

Batting - The right mix of fire and ice.

• Cook and Slater will provide solid yet aggressive starts irrespective of conditions.
• Goddard will be the anchor and provide control with both bat and ball.
• 4-7 will all be quality batsmen who can all Bazball before it became cool (yes YJB had that knock in RSA way before Bazball).
• 8 and 9 have test 100s and can support the batsmen or score freely with their stubborn lower order mates.
• Murali and Anderson have both been considered proper #11s but can hang around and have test 50s to their names.

Bowling - A true all conditions attack

• Johnson will be in beast mode in bouncy conditions like Aus and RSA.
• Anderson will be the king of swing in England, NZ, Windies - esp. if they use the Dukes.
• Kapil will lead us to glory with the new ball in all SC and turning conditions.
• Yasir and Murali can attack and defend based on how the other is going and at least one of them will always find conditions to their liking.
• Goddard, De Silva, Clarke can all provide quality part time support where needed.

 

[kingkallis]

CricZo XI

Gordon Greenidge /
Geoffrey Boycott /
Neil Harvey /
Viv Richards / o
Doug Walters / o
BJ Watling / +
Chris Cairns / o
Richie Benaud o / (c)
Wes Hall o
Fred Trueman o
Colin Croft o

This team will be led by Richie Benaud.

Sir Geoffrey Boycott and Sir Gordon Greenidge will open the inning and these 2 contrasting style players are perfect to compliment each other. Boycs will do the job of holding the inning and tiring the bowlers while Greenidge will take the attack to play with the morales of the opponents.

Neil Harvey and Sir Viv Richards are going to do what Boycs and Greenidge started! If wickets tumble, Harvey will play the anchor and will let v Viv play his natural game. The top order is equipped with patience and aggression which is required to set a decent total.

Doug Walters, who has scored big daddy hundreds at No.5 and No.6 (242 and 250 respectively) along with Watling, Cairns and Benaud will try and add 150-200 runs in the middle - lower middle order.

That top and middle order has experience of piling 40,000 Test runs and well over 150,000 first class runs. BJ Watling is one the finest and safest gloveman of recent times with over 250 dismissals and bowlers will safe if Watling is standing behind the wickets!

I'd have preferred to have Marshall or Hadlee toleadmy bowling unit but I am not too unhappy with Fred Trueman, Sir Wes Hall & Fred Goodall's good friend Colin Croft. These 3 forms a fiery pace attack along with Chris Cairns who takes 3-4 wickets each game to help Trueman manage the workload of the pace battery. Richie Benaud is frequently found in the TOP 5 leggies in cricket forums and discussions among cricket experts and fans.

This formiddable bowling unit has over 1100 test wickets under their belt and have well over 6000 first class wickets to their names.

 

[ankitj]

Jack Hobbs
Bill Ponsford
Frank Worrell (5) (c)
Dudley Nourse
Stan McCabe (6)
Les Ames (wk)
VVS Laxman
Richard Hadlee (2)
Joel Garner (3)
Sydney Barnes (1)
Subhash Gupte (4)

Mine is a very competitive team in the draft. Starting with bowling, it packs 3 fast/medium pace bowlers who are straight up in the greatest dozen or so bowlers of their kind. Sydney Barnes will take the new ball because he is known to not take it kindly to being denied it. Richard Hadlee bowls with the new ball from the other end with Joel Garner bowling at 1st change, a role he has probably played better than any bowler in the history of the test cricket. Subhash Gupte - the classical leg spinner who Sobers thought was no less than Shane Warne - comes in when the bowl gets rougher. This pack is ably supported by support bowlers in Worrell and McCabe.

Batting is capable and bats deep. Jack Hobbs, arguably the greatest batsman allowed in the draft, and Bill Ponsford, another fine opener, provide a solid opening combo. With Frank Worrell, Dudley Nourse and Stan McCabe, you get a combination of strokeplay, style and resillence in the middle. Recall the legendary double hundred by Nourse with a broken thumb or McCabe's numbers in the infamous bodyline series. Recall also that Sir Neville Cardus wrote of Sir Frank that he never made a crude or an ungrammatical stroke. With VVS Laxman, you expect great rescue jobs (should they be needed) that turn game over its head while batting with the tail. Can also be promoted up (to do a Kolkatta 2001) if need arises.

Les Ames, the best batsman-wicketkeeper until Gilchrist came around, lends even more solidity to the batting. Last but not the least, Hadlee at #8 can get some handy runs low down the order.

Fine print: Batting orders are only worth the the paper they are printed on. When real cricket starts teams adapt and improvise!

 

[srbhkshk]

I really don't want to write a write-up or copy paste my previous shambles of an attempt, so I'll just say my thinking is that I have a really good batting line up and a penetrative if flawed bowling attack.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
For the rankings (ignoring my side) , L&L has the strongest side in my opinion and is extremely well balanced. The remaining 5 I will go with are the addicts, patience , trundler, FP and ankit.
Pothas and AndrewB have extremely accomplished batting line ups, especially Andrew's is just stacked af but I don't like the bowling enough to go with them. atraxia's misses the cut for me for the opposite reason.

 

[shortpitched713]

Whose is all conditions all-rounders team?

That would be me!

 

[shortpitched713]

The All Conditions All-Rounders

01. Colin McDonald
02. Herbert Sutcliffe
03. Peter May *
04. Joe Root
05. Andy Flower +
06. Tony Greig (6)
07. Jack Gregory (5)
08. Shaun Pollock (2)
09. Ravindra Jadeja (4)
10. Vernon Philander (1)
11. Bill Johnston (3)

Exactly the kind of team I was looking to create. Has numbers in both batting and bowling, and quality performers on both ends as well.

Batting strength is headed by Sutcliffe, Root and May at the core scoring a bulk of runs. Colin McDonald picked as an opener specifically for his ability in tough conditions, batting courageously and effectively against the pace and aggression of Hall, and doing exceptionally well on sticky wickets against Laker. But the big draw of the batting lineup is its depth. One of the few ATG wicket-keeper batsman, and true all-rounders down to 9, and even bats down to 10 with Philander. Shout outs to @honestbharani .

The bowling attack has a plan as well. Basically the idea is to turn the criticism of "conditions dependence" on its head. Teams like India or South Africa struggled without a plan B for bowling in SENA or subcontinental conditions respectively, and so such a criticism can have merit. But what if your plan B, is the plan A of the alternative condition? This was the idea in choosing both Philander and Jadeja together, two of the best ever ( in Philander's case maybe GOAT? ) at abusing seam friendly and spin friendly conditions respectively. You've got Pollock and Johnston rounding out the frontline bowlers, and more all-rounders giving 6ish very useful bowling options ( 2 of them in Johnston and Greig able to provide either pace or spin depending on the need ).

Oh yeah Jadeja's also good at fielding or something, so if we want to meme we can say that is the answer and I selected him just for that.

Anyway, very happy with how it all turned out, and having a good opportunity to research and get into digging into cricket history, so thanks for that guys, and all of the picks that kept me on my toes, and good convo throughout!

 

[srbhkshk]

Also, it was frustratingly hard ranking multiple teams of such similar strength so I actually tried assigning some numbers to them, they don't mean much as I am pretty sure even the bottom ranked side is good enough to get plenty of wins over the top one.
(And I am not saying this just for HB to not hate me, he knows well he has terrible opinions about cricket , just ask him about MSD.)

Here be my objectively true numerical team strengths where I will withold the algorithm because I am pretending to be ICC today.

L&L	12.981​
the addicts	12.374​
Patience	12.250​
trundler	11.809​
FP	11.657​
ankit	11.657​
atraxia	10.493​
Pothas	10.109​
JOJO	9.770​
Bitmap	9.166​
Criczo	8.972​
AndrewB	8.662​
All rounders	8.000​
Teuton	7.969​
HH	6.964​

 

[honestbharani]

nd I am not saying this just for HB to not hate me, he knows well he has terrible opinions about cricket , just ask him about MSD.

Dont be jelly.


And the like is just for your efforts, as wrong as the results have turned out to be.

 

[shortpitched713]

Honestly, these were all amazing sides given the restrictions. Somehow there is no favorite here, so I won't be criticizing any teams, just listing the strengths I feel of the sides I'm picking

Pothas - Sobers is the shining jewel of this side, and he ties up both the bowling, as well as an insane batting line-up. Most stacked "front-line" batting lineup of the teams, for mine with Weekes and Hammond adding to the middle order domination. Spinner Kumble is a bowling key.
CricZO XI - This team has no weaknesses, as far as I can see. One could say the batting with Watling at 6, but makes up for with all-rounder depth. And I rate all the bowlers here. Just solid, with batting stars Harvey and Richards being a fearsome middle order combo.
Line and Length - All-rounders making for a deep batting line-up, an obvious source of strength here, of note Beefy, even if he is coming all the way down at 8. But the specialists Steyn and Sanga in particular are top notch too.
Patience - Great team with a double all-rounder core of Imran and Miller. O'Reilly is a good spin pick up who rounds out a bowling attack which I think is a strength of this team, but really it's having what most would agree as the best double all-rounder pair out of all teams is the key feature.
Honest Hunks - Somewhat belies his reputation, with not as many all-rounders as expected. Still, a solid side with exceptional bowling quality and depth, especially on the spin side with Murali. Dev serves as a critical anchor at 7 and seam, without which the team would probably unravel.

 

[CricAddict]

Whose is all conditions all-rounders team?

Think you would have known by now. It is shortpitched's team.

 

[CricAddict]

As of now, I have enabled to change the votes anytime before the poll ends. Do you all prefer it that way or should I change it to not allow voters to change their votes?

 

[ataraxia]

atraxia

grr 7th, so close! (ignoring for a moment the massive gap above mine)

 

[shortpitched713]

The All Conditions All-Rounders

01. Colin McDonald
02. Herbert Sutcliffe
03. Peter May *
04. Joe Root
05. Andy Flower +
06. Tony Greig (6)
07. Jack Gregory (5)
08. Shaun Pollock (2)
09. Ravindra Jadeja (4)
10. Vernon Philander (1)
11. Bill Johnston (3)

Exactly the kind of team I was looking to create. Has numbers in both batting and bowling, and quality performers on both ends as well.

Batting strength is headed by Sutcliffe, Root and May at the core scoring a bulk of runs. Colin McDonald picked as an opener specifically for his ability in tough conditions, batting courageously and effectively against the pace and aggression of Hall, and doing exceptionally well on sticky wickets against Laker. But the big draw of the batting lineup is its depth. One of the few ATG wicket-keeper batsman, and true all-rounders down to 9, and even bats down to 10 with Philander. Shout outs to @honestbharani .

The bowling attack has a plan as well. Basically the idea is to turn the criticism of "conditions dependence" on its head. Teams like India or South Africa struggled without a plan B for bowling in SENA or subcontinental conditions respectively, and so such a criticism can have merit. But what if your plan B, is the plan A of the alternative condition? This was the idea in choosing both Philander and Jadeja together, two of the best ever ( in Philander's case maybe GOAT? ) at abusing seam friendly and spin friendly conditions respectively. You've got Pollock and Johnston rounding out the frontline bowlers, and more all-rounders giving 6ish very useful bowling options ( 2 of them in Johnston and Greig able to provide either pace or spin depending on the need ).

Oh yeah Jadeja's also good at fielding or something, so if we want to meme we can say that is the answer and I selected him just for that.

Anyway, very happy with how it all turned out, and having a good opportunity to research and get into digging into cricket history, so thanks for that guys, and all of the picks that kept me on my toes, and good convo throughout!

2 more pieces of trivia on my team, that is sure to (probably not) sway votes:

1) I arranged a batting lineup, such that from 4-11, each subsequent batsman alternates righty/lefty/righty... etc. This is sure to create a match-winning nuisance for fielders and bowlers alike, who have never encountered such a novel tactic during their storied careers...
2) My middle order is the greenest, most plant themed out of all those assembled, being in order May, Root, Flower. Forget about any planning and analysis I was putting into these picks, subconciously I think my brain was just tired of winter, and yearning for the coming of spring...

 

[ataraxia]

1) Virender Sehwag /
2) Eddie Barlow / o
3) Lindsay Hassett* /
4) Martin Crowe /
5) Vijay Hazare /
6) Mohammad Yousuf /
7) Jock Cameron + /
8) Clarrie Grimmett o
9) Andy Roberts o
10) Allan Donald o
11) Glenn McGrath o

A team with decent if not spectacular batting through, before a long tail (unfortunately not quite as #batdeep as Procter at 10!) (inb4 someone points out cricket teams do not quite have 3,628,800 players). Jock Cameron is a counter-attacking keeper-bat who will make the most of the little time he has batting with the tail!

However, it is made up by an excellent bowling lineup – McGrath and Donald can share the new ball very ably, before the aggressive Roberts comes in. If a 4th seamer is required, Barlow is up for it, especially on a greenie. Then Grimmett can come in, and he one of the best stock bowlers in history, can allow the pacers to have long breaks by actually truly holding up one end.