Greatest opener of the last 20 years?

[Ray.]

Imrul Kayes WAFG.

 

[Furball]

Nah ****s, gutsing it out and scoring a tough hundred when you've been massively out of form and been exposed all series takes a lot of mental strength. Taking the light was stupid but Langer and Hayden were setting Australia up for a 'bat once and strangle England with pressure on day 5' effort. Which would have worked had KP not gone into God mode.

 

[GIMH]

Nah ****s, gutsing it out and scoring a tough hundred when you've been massively out of form and been exposed all series takes a lot of mental strength. Taking the light was stupid but Langer and Hayden were setting Australia up for a 'bat once and strangle England with pressure on day 5' effort. Which would have worked had KP not gone into God mode.

Well no it wouldn't as KP going into his mode had nothing to do with England getting a 6-run first innings lead. We'd scored 370+, it was mid-September and bleak. If they wanted to put us under and win by an innings then they needed to bat more positively.

Hayden played for himself. Of course runs are better than no runs but his efforts didn't show mental strength at all IMO, you never felt the game was getting away from us like you often do when facing a 150+ opening stand

Just ftr Freddie would have bowled us to victory if we has collapsed on day 5

 

[Hooksey]

"Great" and "hate" are very different things, and seem to be getting confused in this thread.

 

[Furball]

Well no it wouldn't as KP going into his mode had nothing to do with England getting a 6-run first innings lead. We'd scored 370+, it was mid-September and bleak. If they wanted to put us under and win by an innings then they needed to bat more positively.

Hayden played for himself. Of course runs are better than no runs but his efforts didn't show mental strength at all IMO, you never felt the game was getting away from us like you often do when facing a 150+ opening stand

Just ftr Freddie would have bowled us to victory if we has collapsed on day 5

Well yeah, the weather obviously put paid to that, and like I said, Hayden and Langer taking the light on day 2 when Langer at least was smashing the bowling around was a bit strange to say the least. Weather more than anything else put paid to Australia's chances of winning - they batted in atrocious conditions on day 4 and collapsed. Had the weather held, Hayden and Langer had put Australia in an excellent position.

 

[GIMH]

Well yeah, the weather obviously put paid to that, and like I said, Hayden and Langer taking the light on day 2 when Langer at least was smashing the bowling around was a bit strange to say the least. Weather more than anything else put paid to Australia's chances of winning - they batted in atrocious conditions on day 4 and collapsed. Had the weather held, Hayden and Langer had put Australia in an excellent position.

It was mid-September and Australia had to win. I'm all for playing your game and not declaring on forecasts etc but at the same time you have to play the situation. Hayden didn't, IMO.

 

[Second Spitter]

It was mid-September and Australia had to win. I'm all for playing your game and not declaring on forecasts etc but at the same time you have to play the situation. Hayden didn't, IMO.

At stumps on Day 2, with Australia still 260-odd behind, Hayden was 33* from 32 overs. Langer was 75*.

 

[GuyFromLancs]

At stumps on Day 2, with Australia still 260-odd behind, Hayden was 33* from 32 overs. Langer was 75*.

For a batsman who could put the ball into the stratosphere when in form, Hayden could be tedious to watch when playing inside one of his bubbles. Despite their gap in 6-hitting and career strike rates, Langer was actually more pleasing on the eye for much of the time.

I remember the artificial outrage when Hayden would hit a 6 - "can you believe they dropped this guy from the One Day team" whomever would cry. Actually yes! I can. He was, at the time, dropped for good reason. I accept that he came back, and game back darn good, but I imagine Hayden was a bit of a mindf*ck for the selectors at times.

At the end of the day he can say "look, I averaged 50 in Tests and (IIRC) 44 in ODIs. And he'd be right, overall. Those are kick-ass stats. But it wasn't a smooth passage. For such an obviously big player, his worst was unusually low.