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Steve Smith vs Ricky Ponting

Who was the better test batsman?

  • Total voters
    44
H

HouHsiaoHsien

International Debutant
Raz0r6ack said:
Best 20 Test stretches at home

D. Bradman 2979 runs @ 106.39 (16 Jan 1931 - 1 Jan 1947)
R. Ponting 2934 runs @ 97.80 (17 Oct 2003 - 1 Dec 2006)
S. Smith 2521 runs @ 96.96 (9 Dec 2014 - 26 Dec 2017)
V. Kohli 2418 runs @ 96.72 (8 Oct 2016 - 22 Nov 2019)
J. Kallis 2204 runs @ 88.16 (15 Mar 2002 - 24 Mar 2006)
M. Jayawardene 2505 runs @ 86.37 (27 Jul 2006 - 15 Nov 2010)
K. Sangakkara 2376 runs @ 84.85 (27 Jul 2006 - 15 Nov 2010)
Z. Abbas 1661 runs @ 83.05 (27 Oct 1978 - 19 Mar 1984)
D. Warner 2445 runs @ 81.50 (6 Jan 2015 - 29 Nov 2019)
P. May 1931 runs @ 80.45 (12 Aug 1954 - 24 Jul 1958)
C. Walcott 2404 runs @ 80.13 (7 Feb 1953 - 25 Mar 1960)

Interesting how Ponting and Smith weren't that far off Bradman in Australia at their absolute peaks.
Click to expand...
Same for Kohli, especially considering the pitches India had started rolling out in that period.
 
OverratedSanity

OverratedSanity

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HouHsiaoHsien said:
Same for Kohli, especially considering the pitches India had started rolling out in that period.
Click to expand...
Basically none of Kohli's runs there in that peak came on rank turners. Apart from a couple of games against Australia, India barely rolled out any bunsens during that period. Kohli's best work in that peak period came away from home where runscoring was legitimately hard.
 
H

HouHsiaoHsien

International Debutant
OverratedSanity said:
Basically none of Kohli's runs there in that peak came on rank turners. Apart from a couple of games against Australia, India barely rolled out any bunsens during that period. Kohli's best work in that peak period came away from home where runscoring was legitimately hard.
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Agreed, but it still ranks with the peaks of Smith and Ponting at home, cause they had flat pancakes as well
 
OverratedSanity

OverratedSanity

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Slifer said:
I'm most impressed with Clyde Walcott because 10 of those tests were vs atg English and Australian attacks. I doubt any of the other players in the list faced the same quality of bowling.
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One of the most impressive and overlooked purple patches of all time for sure.
 
B

Bolo.

International Captain
subshakerz said:
p
Ntini was in class form around then.
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Fair.

But he was still crap away. From statsguru, the only year he averaged sub 30 away in his entire career was 2005. He abused teams who could not handle pace and bounce in favourable conditions. Which wasn't AUS.

Basically a super shitty iteration of Ashwin.
 
The_CricketUmpire

The_CricketUmpire

U19 Captain
Raz0r6ack said:
Best 20 Test stretches at home

D. Bradman 2979 runs @ 106.39 (16 Jan 1931 - 1 Jan 1947)
R. Ponting 2934 runs @ 97.80 (17 Oct 2003 - 1 Dec 2006)
S. Smith 2521 runs @ 96.96 (9 Dec 2014 - 26 Dec 2017)
V. Kohli 2418 runs @ 96.72 (8 Oct 2016 - 22 Nov 2019)
J. Kallis 2204 runs @ 88.16 (15 Mar 2002 - 24 Mar 2006)
M. Jayawardene 2505 runs @ 86.37 (27 Jul 2006 - 15 Nov 2010)
K. Sangakkara 2376 runs @ 84.85 (27 Jul 2006 - 15 Nov 2010)
Z. Abbas 1661 runs @ 83.05 (27 Oct 1978 - 19 Mar 1984)
D. Warner 2445 runs @ 81.50 (6 Jan 2015 - 29 Nov 2019)
P. May 1931 runs @ 80.45 (12 Aug 1954 - 24 Jul 1958)
C. Walcott 2404 runs @ 80.13 (7 Feb 1953 - 25 Mar 1960)

Interesting how Ponting and Smith weren't that far off Bradman in Australia at their absolute peaks.
Click to expand...
What about Away from Home (outside home country)
 
Coronis

Coronis

International Coach
Raz0r6ack said:
Best 20 Test stretches at home

D. Bradman 2979 runs @ 106.39 (16 Jan 1931 - 1 Jan 1947)
R. Ponting 2934 runs @ 97.80 (17 Oct 2003 - 1 Dec 2006)
S. Smith 2521 runs @ 96.96 (9 Dec 2014 - 26 Dec 2017)
V. Kohli 2418 runs @ 96.72 (8 Oct 2016 - 22 Nov 2019)
J. Kallis 2204 runs @ 88.16 (15 Mar 2002 - 24 Mar 2006)
M. Jayawardene 2505 runs @ 86.37 (27 Jul 2006 - 15 Nov 2010)
K. Sangakkara 2376 runs @ 84.85 (27 Jul 2006 - 15 Nov 2010)
Z. Abbas 1661 runs @ 83.05 (27 Oct 1978 - 19 Mar 1984)
D. Warner 2445 runs @ 81.50 (6 Jan 2015 - 29 Nov 2019)
P. May 1931 runs @ 80.45 (12 Aug 1954 - 24 Jul 1958)
C. Walcott 2404 runs @ 80.13 (7 Feb 1953 - 25 Mar 1960)

Interesting how Ponting and Smith weren't that far off Bradman in Australia at their absolute peaks.
Click to expand...
Unsure if this is his best but

Kane Williamson (9 Dec 2017 - 13 Feb 2024) 2413 @ 89.37
 
Prince EWS

Prince EWS

Global Moderator
Raz0r6ack said:
Best 20 Test stretches at home

D. Bradman 2979 runs @ 106.39 (16 Jan 1931 - 1 Jan 1947)
R. Ponting 2934 runs @ 97.80 (17 Oct 2003 - 1 Dec 2006)
S. Smith 2521 runs @ 96.96 (9 Dec 2014 - 26 Dec 2017)
V. Kohli 2418 runs @ 96.72 (8 Oct 2016 - 22 Nov 2019)
J. Kallis 2204 runs @ 88.16 (15 Mar 2002 - 24 Mar 2006)
M. Jayawardene 2505 runs @ 86.37 (27 Jul 2006 - 15 Nov 2010)
K. Sangakkara 2376 runs @ 84.85 (27 Jul 2006 - 15 Nov 2010)
Z. Abbas 1661 runs @ 83.05 (27 Oct 1978 - 19 Mar 1984)
D. Warner 2445 runs @ 81.50 (6 Jan 2015 - 29 Nov 2019)
P. May 1931 runs @ 80.45 (12 Aug 1954 - 24 Jul 1958)
C. Walcott 2404 runs @ 80.13 (7 Feb 1953 - 25 Mar 1960)

Interesting how Ponting and Smith weren't that far off Bradman in Australia at their absolute peaks.
Click to expand...
Muh roads.
 
Burgey

Burgey

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Raz0r6ack said:
Best 20 Test stretches at home

D. Bradman 2979 runs @ 106.39 (16 Jan 1931 - 1 Jan 1947)
R. Ponting 2934 runs @ 97.80 (17 Oct 2003 - 1 Dec 2006)
S. Smith 2521 runs @ 96.96 (9 Dec 2014 - 26 Dec 2017)
V. Kohli 2418 runs @ 96.72 (8 Oct 2016 - 22 Nov 2019)
J. Kallis 2204 runs @ 88.16 (15 Mar 2002 - 24 Mar 2006)
M. Jayawardene 2505 runs @ 86.37 (27 Jul 2006 - 15 Nov 2010)
K. Sangakkara 2376 runs @ 84.85 (27 Jul 2006 - 15 Nov 2010)
Z. Abbas 1661 runs @ 83.05 (27 Oct 1978 - 19 Mar 1984)
D. Warner 2445 runs @ 81.50 (6 Jan 2015 - 29 Nov 2019)
P. May 1931 runs @ 80.45 (12 Aug 1954 - 24 Jul 1958)
C. Walcott 2404 runs @ 80.13 (7 Feb 1953 - 25 Mar 1960)

Interesting how Ponting and Smith weren't that far off Bradman in Australia at their absolute peaks.
Click to expand...
Except Bradman's peak was 16 years long. Fair to say that's a decent run of good form.
 
Last edited:
Prince EWS

Prince EWS

Global Moderator
Coronis said:
Oh, you and your black and white players
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Whenever anyone does literally any analysis to standardise by era or opposition or average scores in games or anything like that, May massively benefits.

We've also had @peterhrt talk about how he was perceived at the time, and I'm not big on peer ratings but I think it backs up what those exercises suggest.

I think Peter May and Graeme Smith are the most underrated batsmen of all time. Faulkner and Noble also spring to mind as players I reckon were much better batsmen but worse bowlers than people think. But as specialist bats those are my top two, and only one was in black and white, ha.

Steve Smith is kinda hard as his career hasn't finished yet, plus people tend to not agree with me about how long his home wickets stayed stupidly flat so I might be an outlier on that one... but yeah I definitely reckon May was better than Ponting.
 
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