How good is Sanga?

[Riggins]

It's not due to not being up to the mark. Sanga has done well but Murali has done better. In my opinion, Murali is simply the best off spinner in history of cricket and I can't make that kind of statement for Sanga.

Sanga isn't the best off spinner in the history of cricket? News to me.

 

[Jono]

 

[slowfinger]

How good is Sanga? Very good.

 

[YorksLanka]

absolutely, i have said before, its simply impossible imo to compare players from different era's due to so many variables like the wickets/frequency of games/opposition faced etc..i think all you can say is that Sanga is definitely within the top players the game has seen...

 

[Dissector]

I looked at stats of away runs in England, Australia and South Africa in the last 10 years. Guess who has the second-highest average among batsmen with more than a 1000 runs.

 

[simonlee48]

Its more to do with the fact that for the past 5+ years he's been batting at an excellent standard.

His performance against the 4 best bowling units in the last 5 years. I won't call this excellent standard at all. As I said earlier, aggregate stats going up has made him a focal point and not his excellent cricket in the last 5 years. Few knocks were good one but I am talking about over all performance in any given period being great enough to push any batsman to the next level. I don't think that his performance in the last 5 years does that. He played excellent cricket earlier in his career.

Batting records | Test matches | Cricinfo Statsguru | ESPN Cricinfo

Mention this at a Warne-Murali therad and you will see plenty of people crying out Sl wickets are dustbowls, not flat.

Not true at all. Murali has bowled very well even on flat tracks in SL. All tracks were not dust bowls in SL when Murali bowled. People claiming that have probably not seen him bowl in SL too much. Murali averaged below 20 in in few venues outside of SL as well. Even in SA he averages around 26. We can't start calling all of those instances as dust bowl.

Sure, he used to become more dangerous on spin friendly surface but that's expected from any spinner. Over all, he has done very well on different surfaces.

Sanga isn't the best off spinner in the history of cricket? News to me.

A good one

 

[ohnoitsyou]

It is quite possible for a pitch to be a road days one and two, before turning into dustbowls days four and five

 

[simonlee48]

It is quite possible for a pitch to be a road days one and two, before turning into dustbowls days four and five

No one is saying that Murali always had roads to bowl. Many times it happened the way you are describing but I recall Murali doing damage on roads as well. It's wrong to say that Murali always had dust bowl to perform. In fact let's examine his 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th innings performances in SL.

Murali in 1st inning in SL - Bowling records | Test matches | Cricinfo Statsguru | ESPN Cricinfo

Murali in 2nd inning in SL - Bowling records | Test matches | Cricinfo Statsguru | ESPN Cricinfo

Murali in 3rd inning in SL - Bowling records | Test matches | Cricinfo Statsguru | ESPN Cricinfo

Murali in 4th inning in SL - Bowling records | Test matches | Cricinfo Statsguru | ESPN Cricinfo

So we have Murali averaging 20, 17, 20, & 19 in 1st, 2nd, 3rd & 4th inning. Looks very consistent to me. If pitches were roads for the first few days then he did great even on roads.

-------------------------------------------------------------------

If anyone still has some doubts then let's look at his first inning performance at SSC.

Bowling records | Test matches | Cricinfo Statsguru | ESPN Cricinfo

Dude is averaging below 20 in SSC in first inning. Now it will absurd to claim that SSC was dust bowl from the day one.

That's why I said, anyone claiming that Murali didn't do great on roads has not seen him bowling too much. I saw and remember him doing great on many roads multiple times. He didn't always have dust bowls in SL.

 

[watson]

I've watched Sangakkara bat and he's looks brilliant. So as far as middle order batsman go I would put him just below Tendulkar, Richards, Lara, and Sobers, but on a par with the likes of Kallis, Ponting, and Chappell. I think that's a fair enough reflection of the current zeitgeist.

 

[Migara]

It is quite possible for a pitch to be a road days one and two, before turning into dustbowls days four and five

And Sanga bats on the first two days and Murali bowls on last few days every time.

 

[ohnoitsyou]

I've watched Sangakkara bat and he's looks brilliant. So as far as middle order batsman go I would put him just below Tendulkar, Richards, Lara, and Sobers, but on a par with the likes of Kallis, Ponting, and Chappell. I think that's a fair enough reflection of the current zeitgeist.

Its a travesty for Chappell not to be lumped before the other four, reminds me i need to reply in the other thread, but cbf

 

[Coronis]

Would have Chappell over Tendulkar, Richards and Lara, but thats just me.

 

[harsh.ag]

Would have Wright and Kirsten over Chappell any day, but that's just me (and probably Ganguly)

 

[smash84]

 

[kyear2]

For me,

Bradman, Richards, Tendulkar, Sobers, Lara, Hobbs

Headley, Chappell, Hutton, Ponting, Gavaskar, Sangakkara, Border, Kallis

Hammond, Pollock, Weekes, Worrell, Walcott, Harvey, Dravid, Kanhai, Barrington, Sutcliffe, Compton, Greenidge, Chanderpaul, Waugh, Miandad, ul Haq

May have missed some names.

 

[Red]

I cannot figure out why people don't include Greg Chappell in the top group.

 

[kyear2]

I cannot figure out why people don't include Greg Chappell in the top group.

I have Chappell and Headley as borderline between the two and definitely the best of the 2nd Gold tier level.

 

[Coronis]

Jesus Hammond is another who seems to be continually shortchanged.

 

[kyear2]

I personally don't rate Hammond that highly for reasons I have mentioned on previously. But basically he scored at a strike rate in the low 40's and struggled badly vs fast bowlers in Tests. Still gold tier, just not as highly regarded as some of the others. Fabulous player though none the less.

 

[viriya]

Hutton has a lower SR than Hammond and faced worse bowlers.