Best six hitters

[Eclipse]

Do Indians lack that six-hitting ability? They don't seem to hit very far, except Sehwag, Sachin and probably Yuvraj. Even Dravid and Pathan are capable of hitting some big ones, but there have not been too many. Could this be a weakness?

Indian's usualy wont need to hit the ball as long to get sixes because of the smaller grounds.

Australian batsman on most ground's have to hit the ball very hard or it's not six.

Another thing and this is probably the main reason.

This is a fact (unless the artical I read is wrong) it's been scientificly proven that asian's as a general rule are not usualy as good power athleats or less so than Europeans. They are not as strong physicaly and are usualy slightly smaller in stature.

Obviously this is not allways the case because I can think of many asian players who can hit the ball dam hard.

 

[hellnback]

There has only been one batsman who has ever dispatch four consecutive balls for 6 in Test match history...

Does that make that person the best ever???

 

[Craig]

There has only been one batsman who has ever dispatch four consecutive balls for 6 in Test match history...

Does that make that person the best ever???

Of course not.

Viv had the power to hit the best and the very best across the line and be able to get away with it when he wanted. Which was most of the time.

 

[Loony BoB]

Here's an ODI perspective - I grabbed a few people that have been mentioned (Cairns, Cairns, Richards, Gilchrist, Klusener, Afridi and Powell), threw in the person with the highest strike rate (Blignaut) and the person with 182 ODI sixes to his name, Jayasuriya. ...and then I added my personal favourite slogging tailender NZ player, Andre Adams. Hehe. Although stats don't mean much in the quality of the six, it sure is fun to play around with them. Go Andre!

The real amusing thing is when you add in the averages, though.

All these stats were taken using the info on the world's best strike rates supplied by CricInfo's Records area.

 

[PY]

Klusener has a shall-we-say surprising strike rate....:O

Always thought of him as a similar player to Cairns.

 

[luckyeddie]

Well well well.

I find that Klusener strike rate somewhat amazing. Aren't memories deceptive? Positively rubbish

(goes off to check).

Ah. It's wrong. Zulu's strike rate is 90.35 - you've factored in his AVERAGE.

 

[Loony BoB]

Oh, crap. Yeah, he's one of my favoured players, too, I was surprised once I read your post and double checked the image. xD Sorry. That's what I get for copy/pasting cricinfo on my lunchbreak. =x

 

[thierry henry]

What those stats show is that Richards scored faster than Cairns but hit nowhere near as many sixes. I think it really goes to show that Cairns is just more of a six-hitter, even in one dayers.

 

[marc71178]

And ignore the change in the way ODI cricket has gone in 20 years...

 

[Loony BoB]

What those stats show is that Richards scored faster than Cairns but hit nowhere near as many sixes. I think it really goes to show that Cairns is just more of a six-hitter, even in one dayers.

Face it, mate, you just can't compare one generation to another like that. You can only say "of their time", unless you're going by statistics, of which you can only use to prove who has a better stastic, not who was better at doing something.

 

[luckyeddie]

It's very true that one-day cricket is a vastly different game nowadays.

I've seen 65 overs a side (albeit domestic and not international) then 60 and 55 until we now seem so be settled at 50. Mind you, my guess is that these bone-idle bowlers will soon be walking back even slower so who knows whether it will be cut again?

For a long time, 4 an over was considered a pretty reasonable scoring rate - now sometimes a run a ball is inadequate. Fielding restrictions have had a lot to do with that, though.

Now, how to link this to six-hitting?

I remember a game when Middlesex required 6 off the last ball to beat Derbyshire at Chesterfield (whew, linked it). JT Murray on strike, Ian Buxton the bowler. All 10 fielders were positioned on the boundary - even the wicket-keeper took his pads off and fielded at deep backward square leg.

Note that there were no fielding restrictions but the bowler's run-up was restricted to 15 yards.

Murray hit 4.

 

[indianreligion]

i'm not saying that they r the best six hitters...but i personally enjoy watching ganguly and gilchrist's sixes the most...(and balaji! )

 

[biased indian]

ganguly aganist spinners

 

[Sehwag309]

Nobody has mentioned Abdur Razaaq

Anyways, the best sixes ever hit are probably in First-Class Games.

 

[Umair316]

Yes Sehwag, I consider Abdul Razzaq as the cleanest hitter of the ball this game has ever seen.

Even Stpehen Fleming, who has Chris Cairns' team mate, said this after the 5th ODI between Pak-NZ at Wellington after Razzaq scored a brutal 88 in 40 balls in chase of 309 runs.

"Razzaq is the day in or out, is the cleanest hitter of the ball I have ever seen

After watching Razzaq bat in recent history, he is the best I have seen in a long time.

Others come to mind are, Cairns, Klusener, Afridi, Wasim, Inzimam, Jayasuriya.

Interesting fact, Afridi has hit more sixes in a six per match rate.

He is a very mediocore batsman, but a great hitter of the ball.

 

[Sehwag309]

Although had a short career but Robin Singh also hit some very huge ones

 

[Salamuddin]

ganguly aganist spinners

Ganguly has hit some pretty big sixes off pace bowlers as well.

The one he hit off Damien Fleming at the MCG in the 1999-2000
VB series was one of the biggest I've ever seen.

 

[thierry henry]

It's very true that one-day cricket is a vastly different game nowadays.

Agreed.

But since Richards had a HIGHER strike rate than Cairns, I don't quite see the relevance? What Richard's strike rate shows is that he batted just as aggressively as the most aggressive players around today. But he still didn't hit anywhere near as many sixes.

 

[Neil Pickup]

Agreed.

But since Richards had a HIGHER strike rate than Cairns, I don't quite see the relevance? What Richard's strike rate shows is that he batted just as aggressively as the most aggressive players around today. But he still didn't hit anywhere near as many sixes.

Because there was no need to take the extra risk.

If you had to pick a batsman to hit a ball for six...