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Brian Lara vs Ricky Ponting

Who is the greater test batsman?

  • Ponting but it’s close

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Ponting and it’s not close

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • Total voters
    36

Coronis

International Coach
You are hilarious.

Is that how you do things?👀

But I'm on vacation, so I'll play along.

It's already borne out in his numbers, so no need to subtract anything. And to answer your next question, no I don't rate him purely on his away numbers because then he would be closer to Walsh than Ambrose.
So very honestly, if I were to either rate him on his away numbers alone, or "subtract" cheat / umpiring "points" from his home numbers (which isn't beyond reason), he would be below Donald, Lillee, Wasim, probably Holding and Garner as well.

For me he just wasn't as good a bowler as;
Marshall, McGrath, Hadlee, Steyn, Warne, Murali nor Ambrose. You know what, neither does the forum, because that's where they consistently rate him as well.

It also doesn't impact how I view his batting. Even without the no's (which % was so very much higher at home), and a couple hundreds where earlier declarations would have been in order, it is what it is. The numbers are soft and a little inflated. Doesn't make him not the best lower order batsman in the game. Not nearly Gilchrist level, but for 8, definitely. He definely had some really good and crucial innings, but wasn't nearly as consistent as is projected in some arguments. But he was a lower order guy, so wasn't expected to be.

Now where the extra circulars does impact my judgement, and there are 2 of them, and the 1st would just be a me thing as no one else chooses these teams this way...
Are for AT XI's, and even then it's a coin toss between him, Wasim, Steyn and (really should and deserve to be) Hadlee. At face value he's the 4th best bowler of the 4, easily the best batsman, but again arguably the 3rd best with the old ball, and Hadlee wasn't bad there either. But then the question for me is, unless he's travelling with his home umpires, and the camera isn't looking at him, how good will he be compared to the others. And there his away numbers does comes into play, and they aren't nearly as good as the others. You may disagree, but it's a valid point.
The 2nd is overall ratings. On his overall numbers and at face value, he's top 5 all time... He's the 2nd best all rounder of all time. But there was a reason why, even during his peak there was no one calling him the best, and even in the totality of his era he was rated between 3rd and 4th. Everyone knew, and he and Miandad were docked a little for the home advantages. Then the batting average was never quite aligned with the production, and even then it got a major boost near the end of the career. So yeah, top 10 is a fair spot for me, not good enough for you, but we can all agree to disagree.


But that's basically it, they don't factor into by bowler ratings, if it did, he would be lower. And the reason I do being it up (and will bring it up every time you start you bs), is because you consistently go after his rivals and everyone else with exaggerated nonsense... Specifically of late coming up with various caveats, "did they benefit from...", while no one benefitted more from..... than Imran. Yes Kallis's bowling average may flatter compared to his output, so does Imran's batting average. Yes Ambrose's s/r wasn't the greatest, it was the same as Imran's, but he was also the best in his era and was better away from home.

And just to be sure you see I've answered your question, I don't take off cheat points, and he's exactly where I think he should be. If I deducted cheat points, he would be ranked lower.
And even without the home advantages, he's still not a lock for my XI, because Steyn was a better bowler and could also a master of reverse, Hadlee was just better as well and a good enough bat for 8, and Wasim has the variety, best ever with the old ball (with or without reverse), and too was a clutch bat. So no, not because I dislike him for what ever contrived reason you come up with. Even in our last poll he was tied for 4th among the fast bowling options, and well behind the top 3, it's not just me.

And for the record he was an immensely talented bowler and a more than useful lower order batsman. From the history of the game I have only 5 pacers and 2 (possibly 3) spinners ahead of him. I have him as a top 10 player of all time even taking into account the outside stuff, but you're argument to me is that isn't enough and I'm biased against him. None of those are outside the bounds of accepted ratings and higher than quite a few. So give it a rest.
We may have different ideas of the term vacation…
 

subshakerz

Hall of Fame Member
Nothing ranting about it.

But any time you can't counter something it's a rant.
Why are you so desperate I need to reply a thesis as well?

We already got the point.

You think Imran's a cheat, you cut points, and you make reasons and threads up later with different reasons to justify it.
 

kyear2

International Coach
Why are you so desperate I need to reply a thesis as well?

We already got the point.

You think Imran's a cheat, you cut points, and you make reasons and threads up later with different reasons to justify it.
You either can't comprehend or refuse to.

1. Don't cut points, especially not for bowling rankings.

2. Not reasons to justify anything. They are all valid points to anyone who doesn't want to ignore them.
 

subshakerz

Hall of Fame Member
You either can't comprehend or refuse to.

1. Don't cut points, especially not for bowling rankings.

2. Not reasons to justify anything. They are all valid points to anyone who doesn't want to ignore them.
You do cut cheat points. And I will bring it up everytime Imran comes up with you. The rest of your arguments have been exposed.
 

pardus

U19 12th Man
Ponting along with Viv were arguably the best players of short pitched bowling in the game.
Lara was in his league of his own and enough has been said about him in this thread.

Ponting in ODIs however blows Lara out of competition, arguably among the greatest match winners of all time.
I could be way off here, or maybe it's just me, but I often felt that because of Ponting's instinct to play the pull shot against short pitched deliveries, I found him to be pretty vulnerable against well directed short-pitched bowling at high pace. I mean, against well directed short pitched deliveries over 90 mph in Test cricket (just randomly picking a speed threshold here). While executing the hook shot or a chest-high horizontal pull shot, it almost looked like Ponting had a clear pace threshold above which he struggled to connect the shot properly.

To be fair to Ponting, consistently connecting a hook shot or a horizontal-bat pull shot, against that pace (say > 90 mph) is a tall order for any batsman, especially in Test cricket. I have seen Lara, because of his insane arm/bat speed, occasionally managing to execute those shots against high pace a few times - and that too only when he was totally dialed in, and he knew (or expected) beforehand that the bowler was going to bowl short.

Ponting also seemed vulnerable to me against short pitched deliveries that lifted relatively sharply - even if they were slightly below the pace threshold. The kind of deliveries West Indian fast bowlers of 80s and early 90s frequently bowled on Australian pitches.
Again, taking nothing away from Ponting here, these kind of deliveries would trouble any batsman.

But Ponting's vulnerability stemmed more from his instinct to attack (a bit like Lara).

I have to add that, to Ponting's credit, he executed the pull/hook shot phenomenally well on deliveries that didn't perfectly fall into above criteria. So if the bowler let up even slightly in pace or length, Ponting would punish the delivery severely with that pull shot of his.
Ponting would also often execute the pull shot with absolute authority and comfort even against good length deliveries (or not-very-short deliveries) or deliveries on off-stump line or even outside-the-off-stump line, naturally discouraging bowlers/captains to even try bowling short at him.

So the margin of error for the fast bowler was low, especially given that in that era, Ponting didn't encounter very many fast bowlers, who could consistently bowl the short ball in Test cricket with the pace and accuracy of a Marshall or an Andy Roberts or a Dennis Lillee. Rules (regarding short-pitched bowling) also were significantly stricter compared to the 70s and the 80s.
 

kyear2

International Coach
You do cut cheat points. And I will bring it up everytime Imran comes up with you. The rest of your arguments have been exposed.
Says you?

Nothing I brought up is incorrect in any way. You may not like it, doesn't make it less so.
 

The_CricketUmpire

State 12th Man
Are we still debating whether Imran Khan wasn't a good player?

Gee I think his stats speak for themselves. Outstanding player. All time great for Pakistan.
 

Kirkut

International Regular
I could be way off here, or maybe it's just me, but I often felt that because of Ponting's instinct to play the pull shot against short pitched deliveries, I found him to be pretty vulnerable against well directed short-pitched bowling at high pace. I mean, against well directed short pitched deliveries over 90 mph in Test cricket (just randomly picking a speed threshold here). While executing the hook shot or a chest-high horizontal pull shot, it almost looked like Ponting had a clear pace threshold above which he struggled to connect the shot properly.

To be fair to Ponting, consistently connecting a hook shot or a horizontal-bat pull shot, against that pace (say > 90 mph) is a tall order for any batsman, especially in Test cricket. I have seen Lara, because of his insane arm/bat speed, occasionally managing to execute those shots against high pace a few times - and that too only when he was totally dialed in, and he knew (or expected) beforehand that the bowler was going to bowl short.

Ponting also seemed vulnerable to me against short pitched deliveries that lifted relatively sharply - even if they were slightly below the pace threshold. The kind of deliveries West Indian fast bowlers of 80s and early 90s frequently bowled on Australian pitches.
Again, taking nothing away from Ponting here, these kind of deliveries would trouble any batsman.

But Ponting's vulnerability stemmed more from his instinct to attack (a bit like Lara).

I have to add that, to Ponting's credit, he executed the pull/hook shot phenomenally well on deliveries that didn't perfectly fall into above criteria. So if the bowler let up even slightly in pace or length, Ponting would punish the delivery severely with that pull shot of his.
Ponting would also often execute the pull shot with absolute authority and comfort even against good length deliveries (or not-very-short deliveries) or deliveries on off-stump line or even outside-the-off-stump line, naturally discouraging bowlers/captains to even try bowling short at him.

So the margin of error for the fast bowler was low, especially given that in that era, Ponting didn't encounter very many fast bowlers, who could consistently bowl the short ball in Test cricket with the pace and accuracy of a Marshall or an Andy Roberts or a Dennis Lillee. Rules (regarding short-pitched bowling) also were significantly stricter compared to the 70s and the 80s.
How would you rate this video? He didn't necessary look in complete command but BOOM!!


I've seen him play similar shots off Akhtar and Flintoff.
 

number11

State Vice-Captain
Lara was a genius. There are lots of great batsmen but very few geniuses. You know genius when you see it, it's the ease of it all. The x factor, the ability to do that which is impossible for others. Many achieve equal results through sheet grit and grind, and kudos to them, but they lack the x factor of a genius. Lara, Viv and ABDV stand out for me in recent times [modern era, 1970 onwars broadly speaking] for being geniuses.

Ponting is an ATG, T1 ATG at that, but he didn't have that "something".
 

sayon basak

International Vice-Captain
Lara was a genius. There are lots of great batsmen but very few geniuses. You know genius when you see it, it's the ease of it all. The x factor, the ability to do that which is impossible for others. Many achieve equal results through sheet grit and grind, and kudos to them, but they lack the x factor of a genius. Lara, Viv and ABDV stand out for me in recent times [modern era, 1970 onwars broadly speaking] for being geniuses.

Ponting is an ATG, T1 ATG at that, but he didn't have that "something".
 

number11

State Vice-Captain
On his day Lara was the best but seen him struggle on occasions. On the other hand, ABD may get out for a low score but do not think he exhibited any weakness.
ABDV was a genius. In batting terms, I think modern cricket has seen 3 authentic geniuses - Lara, VIv and De Villiers.
 

kyear2

International Coach
Lara was a genius. There are lots of great batsmen but very few geniuses. You know genius when you see it, it's the ease of it all. The x factor, the ability to do that which is impossible for others. Many achieve equal results through sheet grit and grind, and kudos to them, but they lack the x factor of a genius. Lara, Viv and ABDV stand out for me in recent times [modern era, 1970 onwars broadly speaking] for being geniuses.

Ponting is an ATG, T1 ATG at that, but he didn't have that "something".
Exactly the highlighted bits.

That genius that only the elite greats have.

On my top 9

4 are genius

1 that special grit and resolve and having to overcome

3 are absolute run machines

Not sure how to categorize Hobbs
 

DrWolverine

State Vice-Captain
Exactly the highlighted bits.

That genius that only the elite greats have.

On my top 9

4 are genius

1 that special grit and resolve and having to overcome

3 are absolute run machines

Not sure how to categorize Hobbs
I am interested. Please tell who

Geniuses - Lara & Viv. I am guessing

Run Machine - Sachin.

Grit - Smith or Gavaskar?
 

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