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Wasim Akram vs Muttiah Muralitharan

Better cricketer, Akram or Murali?


  • Total voters
    26

kyear2

International Coach
No. Warne never had any decent series in India(which Murali did atleast once). Also Murali dominated India at home(and an ATG Australia side- commendable. Murali’s Australia performance can be justified. Warne’s performance in India and WI can’t. Also Murali at his long peak of 90ish tests took a truckload of wickets
Even if you have Murali ahead of Warne, which is fully justifiable, I can't find the justification of having them in separate tiers.
Murali had more wickets and better wpm, but had way less competition for wickets, on pitches that were designed for him and had his fair share of minnows.

That was the aim of my question. I rank them together basically, so having them that far apart is interesting.
 

capt_Luffy

Cricketer Of The Year
I find this "designed pitches" argument really infuriating. Sri Lankan just were more suitable for spin back then; they were so before, they were so after, they are so till now. Infact they pretty much were high scoring most often. No one says pitches were designed for Lillee, Trueman, Anderson, Steyn etc at home. Also, I don't trust people who thinks playing day and out in a team without any support is better than playing in a high competition one. I mean, if you are mid, sure; you are getting dropped otherwise. But the fact that bowling works in pairs and very much needs pressure to be build from both sides, or you literally having no cover in a bad day, or not even getting to bowl in the 2nd innings as a spinner in many more instances.......
 

smash84

The Tiger King
I find this "designed pitches" argument really infuriating. Sri Lankan just were more suitable for spin back then; they were so before, they were so after, they are so till now. Infact they pretty much were high scoring most often. No one says pitches were designed for Lillee, Trueman, Anderson, Steyn etc at home. Also, I don't trust people who thinks playing day and out in a team without any support is better than playing in a high competition one. I mean, if you are mid, sure; you are getting dropped otherwise. But the fact that bowling works in pairs and very much needs pressure to be build from both sides, or you literally having no cover in a bad day, or not even getting to bowl in the 2nd innings as a spinner in many more instances.......
Also infuriating, Murali was bowling on minefields and capitalizing fully getting all those wickets. While Mahela and Sanga were feasting runs on the flat tracks of SL. Which one is it?
 

Johan

State Vice-Captain
I find this "designed pitches" argument really infuriating. Sri Lankan just were more suitable for spin back then; they were so before, they were so after, they are so till now. Infact they pretty much were high scoring most often. No one says pitches were designed for Lillee, Trueman, Anderson, Steyn etc at home. Also, I don't trust people who thinks playing day and out in a team without any support is better than playing in a high competition one. I mean, if you are mid, sure; you are getting dropped otherwise. But the fact that bowling works in pairs and very much needs pressure to be build from both sides, or you literally having no cover in a bad day, or not even getting to bowl in the 2nd innings as a spinner in many more instances.......
Well.........
 

Johan

State Vice-Captain
Also infuriating, Murali was bowling on minefields and capitalizing fully getting all those wickets. While Mahela and Sanga were feasting runs on the flat tracks of SL. Which one is it?
Well anyone who knows what's up knows Mahela is one of the finest players of spin in history
 

Johan

State Vice-Captain
Practically speaking there is nothing between Warne and Murali, it's really all preference
 

kyear2

International Coach
I find this "designed pitches" argument really infuriating. Sri Lankan just were more suitable for spin back then; they were so before, they were so after, they are so till now. Infact they pretty much were high scoring most often. No one says pitches were designed for Lillee, Trueman, Anderson, Steyn etc at home. Also, I don't trust people who thinks playing day and out in a team without any support is better than playing in a high competition one. I mean, if you are mid, sure; you are getting dropped otherwise. But the fact that bowling works in pairs and very much needs pressure to be build from both sides, or you literally having no cover in a bad day, or not even getting to bowl in the 2nd innings as a spinner in many more instances.......
Question 1.
Did Murali have considerably more spin friendly pitches at home than Warne. The answer to that can only be yes.

And I'm not even trying to build an argument that Warne was better than Murali, I started off saying I have them basically together.

And for the slow one(s) in the gallery. If you have pitches designed for spin and not in the slightest conducive for pace, and the opponents travel with a primarily pace attack, it is a flat pitches for said pacers and the batsmen that face them. Not every team had a Murali or Warne at their disposal, actually, no other team did. How is that difficult to grasp?
 

subshakerz

Hall of Fame Member
Close to but much worse WPM. Warne pretty much played 3rd fiddle to McGrath and Gillespie. I will say though that was a good series. But simultaneously, I think Warne in India 2001 is the worst series by an ATG bowler ever, especially in helpful conditions and he effectively costed Australia the series in the Chennai Test.
What about Murali in 97 and 2009? Those were bad too.

Yeah well, one's bowling with Glenn McGrath and Jason Gillespie while one with Chaminda Vaas and Malinga Bandara, but yeah not going to defend Warnie's India record, just think saying Murali had a good series in India absolving him of other failures there is silly.
It wasn't even that good of a series outside that magic Nagpur spell as he was neutralised besides that.
 

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