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Michael Vaughan vs Stephen Fleming

Better test opener?


  • Total voters
    14

Rob Wesley

School Boy/Girl Cricketer
Vaughan edges in batting because of what he did in Ashes vs McGrath and Warne.

Fleming was a great captain and tactically astute as well but perhaps in batting, Vaughan edges.
 

Prince EWS

Global Moderator
Poll says opener for some reason. Vaughan was definitely a better opener, Fleming rarely did it and averaged low 30s when he did.

I actually think Fleming was the better overall bat though.
 

Fuller Pilch

Hall of Fame Member
Vaughan was obviously much better at home, in Australia, and had a better conversion rate. He also had a much shorter career.

Fleming was brilliant in Asia and on the rare occasions he reached 100 they were generally very big. Insane record against Murali in SL.

Fleming had a great record at 3 away from home.
 

ImpatientLime

International Regular
vaughan has a very good 5th day, match saving knock in kandy v murali

that england bowling attack btw. chucker kirtley, freddie, giles and batty is absolutely filthy.


he scored centuries
he actually beat australia as captain
 

BazBall21

International Captain
vaughan has a very good 5th day, match saving knock in kandy v murali

that england bowling attack btw. chucker kirtley, freddie, giles and batty is absolutely filthy.


he scored centuries
he actually beat australia as captain
Think his top 3 Test knocks are probably that, Adelaide 2002 and Old Trafford 2005.

Fleming was a better bet for consistency in some conditions, but I'd rate Vaughan just ahead on virtue of being a lot better at setting games up. 9 tons in over 100 tests is bizarre from a good player who mostly batted top 4.
 

Fuller Pilch

Hall of Fame Member
Fleming didn't score enough runs at home and to be honest should've been dropped for home tests if he hadn't been captain. He also looked a million bucks but others scored the important runs.
 

BazBall21

International Captain
I think his consistency abroad conveys technical quality; but for some reason he just couldn't convert, which does matter a lot in tests.
 

Johan

International Vice-Captain
Think his top 3 Test knocks are probably that, Adelaide 2002 and Old Trafford 2005.

Fleming was a better bet for consistency in some conditions, but I'd rate Vaughan just ahead on virtue of being a lot better at setting games up. 9 tons in over 100 tests is bizarre from a good player who mostly batted top 4.
TBH on spicy wickets, sometimes 70-80 is worth more than 120 on normal wickets.

but def agree it's a caveat for Fleming to be so lacking in term of tons, even Botham has more. Vaughan takes 8 innings to make a hundred and Fleming 21, that just isn't right.
 

BazBall21

International Captain
TBH on spicy wickets, sometimes 70-80 is worth more than 120 on normal wickets.

but def agree it's a caveat for Fleming to be so lacking in term of tons, even Botham has more. Vaughan takes 8 innings to make a hundred and Fleming 21, that just isn't right.
Yes I suspect Fleming was a bit better than Vaughan at producing valuable scores in responsive conditions which has importance. Good supporting batsman.

But he was inexplicably bad at making hundreds and when the sample size is over 100 tests, it's definitely a major weakness and not just a result of circumstances.
 
Last edited:

trundler

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Longevity would be a point in Fleming's favour if he had outperformed Vaughn's level of output but had his averages nerfed by a poor patch that Vaughn didn't have to contend with due to a shorter career or if he'd sustained a similar level of output for longer but Fleming just played like an employee on his notice period for 100 years, doing just the bare minimum. He's like Tom Latham before Tom Latham was a thing.
 

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