6th Match - New Zealand v Scotland

[GGG]

Not solely going on average.Even when the stats have been modified I think guppy's look better. His record is significantly better than astles. Average +strike rate + Astle generally below par performances in world cups. Apart from a couple of home series deciders, Astle used to go missing in big series,(I'm talking solely odis here)
I think even when he looks bad guptil hangs on a bit more, I always felt if a opening bowler back in the day was in form .. astle would get out early,

Well I gave reasons for average in my edited post. Astle did have a lot of failures but in the bigger picture he was more value as he simple won us countless games.

 

[Mike5181]

Astle's comfortably a better one day player than Guptill.

 

[Athlai]

Yeah NZ pitches have changed so much since Astle retired.

 

[veganbob]

Astle's comfortably a better one day player than Guptill.

No, he never was. Lots of centuries- granted NZ pitches were tougher to bat on but its not like he did much better away from home. A lot of failures in between those 100's. I'd rather have odi opener hit two 50's than a 100 and 0 anyway. Also feel while batting down the order in odis is much easier these days, teams generally lose a lot of wickets up front now.
Matter of opinion Then .. either way I'd pick guppy any day of the week over astle as an odi opener.

Just as big a match winner, shows more fight when out of form.
Guptill isn't up to it as a test player. However he is probably the most underrated nz odi batsman of all time. Hopefully will change over time, I clearly remember many calls for astle to be dropped when he was out of form- yet he seems to have become a fan favourite since he retired.

 

[Flem274*]

Only Turner competes with Astle as an ODI opener. I'm a huge Guptill fan but Guppy is in the tier below. Astle was the Baz of his time but better.

 

[Fuller Pilch]

Only Turner competes with Astle as an ODI opener. I'm a huge Guptill fan but Guppy is in the tier below. Astle was the Baz of his time but better.

I agree - Astle was heaps better than Guptill. Guptill is a bit underrated as ODI player (especially when one considers his fielding), but his figures are boosted by back to back centuries against England and a great record at Eden Park, while Astle was probably our best ODI player (ahead of Cairns and Harris) in the late 90s.

 

[Athlai]

You'd pick Guptill ahead of Astle at Eden Park but probably not anywhere else.

 

[_Ed_]

You'd pick Guptill ahead of Astle at Eden Park but probably not anywhere else.

World Cups too, IMO. Astle was remarkably dire in those.

 

[Zinzan]

You'd pick Guptill ahead of Astle at Eden Park but probably not anywhere else.

Fair point that. Guptill's record at Eden park is 2nd only to Crowe when it comes to NZ'ders.

I'm very surprised how poor Fleming's record is at Eden park considering it used to be thought of as a bit of a left-handers ground due to the dimensions.

Incidentally, how good is Ian Smith's SR there considering he played in the 80s

 

[Sarun]

Anyone expected Vettori to make Starting XI a year or two ago?

 

[Zinzan]

^ I had some faint hope it may be his swansong, but wouldn't have put money on it.