Cricket Team Draft - ODI edition

[G.I.Joe]

I select the original Albie Morkel, Justin Kemp.

A clean hitter with more than enough power to consistently clear the ropes at any ground, he averaged 36.82 when batting at 6 or 7, which he will do in this team, plus at a strike rate of over 80. He was also a very competent medium fast bowler (32 wkts @ 31.71, econ 4.67) who would've been used more if South Africa weren't already blessed with Pollock and Kallis as two world class allrounders. His international career was ended prematurely when he jumped to the ICL but he still played 85 matches and did pretty well.

Kemp and Morkel aren't comparable. I was considering Kemp instead of Morkel. But the fact is that Kemp bowls just 2.5 overs per game, whatever the reasons. He's a batsman *** part time bowler. Morkel is a bowler *** lower order biffer.

 

[Matt79]

Weldone has 5 and a half hours left. We've been crawling this weekend.

 

[NUFAN]

Is it just me, or is there a lot of average players in these sides. Not having a go at at any side in general. But across the board there not a great deal of quality after top five players or so.

No I agree. Besides the players in the first few rounds, hardly anyone who has been picked has been players I would go for.

I guess some people may say the same about my selection of Ewan Chatfield though.

 

[G.I.Joe]

2 hours and 49 minutes left for Weldone before NUFAN takes over.

 

[Matt79]

Is it just me, or is there a lot of average players in these sides. Not having a go at at any side in general. But across the board there not a great deal of quality after top five players or so.

Symptomatic of the number of teams being picked, the relatively shorter span of time and players available for ODIs, and the nature of ODIs itself - its a game that has seen more mediocre players thrive compared to Tests.

 

[Matt79]

I was putting very little thought into my selections until the main draft finished - since then I've been gazumped a couple of times.

 

[GIMH]

I have done no planning with my team, just decided which type of player I wanted as each go came up. The only one I sat waiting for was Pollock, maybe Tresco as well actually

 

[weldone]

Ian Bishop

A bowling average of 26.5 and an economy rate of 4.33 is more than decent for the third pacer in my team. If it wasn't because of injury, at a time it was hard to predict who would be the best bowler among him, Ambrose and Walsh in the long run. And guess what, I have all three of them in my team! Actually I made the decision for this pick within 5 minutes. I hope the old combination of giant West Indian fast bowlers works. And also, this means I don't have to think much for picking my home ground. I have my top three pace bowlers and the specialist opening batsman in my team all from West Indies.

Team till now:

AB de Villiers
Desmond Haynes
Ross Taylor
Javed Miandad
Shoaib Malik
Chris Cairns
Ian Bishop
Curtly Ambrose
Courtney Walsh
Muttiah Muralitharan

My bowling attack looks complete and awesome with 5 bowlers in Ambrose, Walsh, Murali, Bishop and Cairns with Malik joining in as the sixth bowler (and the second spin option on conducive surfaces)...My batting line-up is also very good as a combination consisting of specialist opener, power hitters for powerplays, anchor ((s): the plural is for my next pick ) in the middle overs and huge sloggers in the end overs...

 

[NUFAN]

Simon O'Donnell
After seeing Morkel and Kemp chosen I had to do a double take to see if SOD was still available.

O'Donnell was a fantastic all rounder known for his destructive batting and intelligent fast medium bowling.

So just like the Test Draft, I've left my wicket keeper until last.

 

[Matt79]

If Ozone is around, we can get another 4-5 players picked now.

 

[chaminda_00]

Simon O'Donnell
After seeing Morkel and Kemp chosen I had to do a double take to see if SOD was still available.

O'Donnell was a fantastic all rounder known for his destructive batting and intelligent fast medium bowling.

So just like the Test Draft, I've left my wicket keeper until last.

Was surprised he was still left.

 

[G.I.Joe]

Simon O'Donnell
After seeing Morkel and Kemp chosen I had to do a double take to see if SOD was still available.

O'Donnell was a fantastic all rounder known for his destructive batting and intelligent fast medium bowling.

So just like the Test Draft, I've left my wicket keeper until last.

Didn't know O'Donnell's batting was that good. Although to be fair to my man Morkel, a SR of 102 > SR of 80. Early times in his career though.

 

[chaminda_00]

Didn't know O'Donnell's batting was that good. Although to be fair to my man Morkel, a SR of 102 > SR of 80. Early times in his career though.

Different eras. O'Donnell would have had similar s/r if he could have used the batting power play. Perfect player for that rule.

 

[ozone]

I choose West Indian fast bowler, Patrick Patterson, a player I had never even heard of him until I read somewhere that Gooch said he was the only bowler he ever feared for his life when facing. Although he only played 59 ODIs, an average of 24.51 and strike rate of 33.8 can't be wrong, and he should give my sides bowling that extra X-factor.

To complete my XI, I will choose Craig McMillan. Although not spectacular, he can be a very useful middle order hitter, who can also contribute with the ball.

 

[weldone]

There's a possibility that my order could still change slightly. Would possibly put in a attaking bowling all-rounder up the order and use him and Sachin as my fifth bowler. Also, Courtney Walsh wasn't a prolific one day bowler, and Srinath would certainly compare to him, IMO. I would say your main weakness is you're keeper. Asking de Villiers (not a regular keeper) to keep and to open the batting against, theoretically, some of the best ODI bowlers of all time is probably a big ask.

Well, I think all those who know a bit about ODI cricket history (including you) will know that in ODIs:

Ambrose>Marshall
Walsh>Srinath (you are missing the econony rate part which is equally important as average in ODIs and way more important than strike rate- And I guess even you would have taken Walsh if he were still available when you took Srinath)
Muralitharan>Saqlain

And about de Villiers, I grant your point about his keeping which is probably the only weakness in my team...He is probably as good a wicket-keeper as Dravid, till now...(Though I am very hopeful about him once Boucher retires, but that's another story)...But about his batting, I would say that I gave taken him for the powerplays beside a specialist opener in Haynes...He was great against McGrath and Lee, and I don't think any of the team here has got two better new-ball bowlers than them; so the point you made about his batting against new-ball bowlers is invalid according to me...Moreover, even he he fails sometimes (clearly I don't expect him to make 70 of 75 balls in every match), then I have an equally (in fact, more) great player for the powerplays, namely Ross Taylor...

 

[ozone]

Ozone's XI
1. Greenidge
2. Tendulkar
3. Crowe
4. Atapattu
5. Collingwood
6. McMillan
7. McCullum
8. Marshall
9. Srinath
10. Patterson
11. Mushtaq

 

[Matt79]

I choose West Indian fast bowler, Patrick Patterson, a player I had never even heard of him until I read somewhere that Gooch said he was the only bowler he ever feared for his life when facing. Although he only played 59 ODIs, an average of 24.51 and strike rate of 33.8 can't be wrong, and he should give my sides bowling that extra X-factor.

To complete my XI, I will choose Craig McMillan. Although not spectacular, he can be a very useful middle order hitter, who can also contribute with the ball.

Was going to take Patterson, til I found Gray's record on Cricinfo. (and before someone cries that I'm just picking players based on Statsguru, once I found him and looked at some of the matches he was involved in, I actually remembered having seen him and being impressed at the time and even being surprised not to see him in subsequent times I saw the Windies).

He was nasty - a big bloody brick house of a guy who looked extremely scary to face up to. I think Steve Waugh rated one of Patterson's spells as one of the nastiest he'd endured as well. I still think that the bowling line up of Marshall, Ambrose, Patterson and Walsh that the Windies had around that time was the best line up of pace bowlers I've seen, having been too young to take any notice of the teams in the early and mid 80s.

 

[Matt79]

yes, if Weldone and pskov stick around, we'll get up to Simon before the night it out.

 

[NUFAN]

Ian Healy.
Excellent glove man and decent batsman rounds out my XI.

Nufan XI
1 Chris Gayle
2 Saeed Anwar
3 Viv Richards
4 Clive Lloyd
5 Andrew Symonds
6 Jacob Oram
7 Simon O'Donnell
8 Ian Healy
9 Dennis Lillee
10 Fanie De Villiers
11 Ewan Chatfield

Batting is the strength, many batsman in the side have scored big runs when it matters and everyone in the top 8 has a SR over 80, which is amazing.

Lillee, De Villiers and Chatfield have terrific records, while Oram, O'Donnell and Symonds should ensure the pressure is kept on the opponents.

Gayle, Richards and again Symonds can help with some handy off spinners on occasions.

 

[Matt79]

Lol, the rat with the gold tooth. With Cronje, Malik, Azharuddin, Jadeja, and Gibbs, we certainly have an interesting cast of characters in this draft...

Decent player as well, it must be said.