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Jacques Kallis vs Steve Waugh

Who was the greater test batsman?

  • Jacques Kallis

    Votes: 34 61.8%
  • Steve Waugh

    Votes: 21 38.2%

  • Total voters
    55

StephenZA

Cricket Web: All-Time Legend
You are strawmanning. The argument is that Kallis for most of his batting career stayed stuck in one accumulator mode to the detriment of his team, unlike the alphas for other teams, like Tendulkar, Lara and Ponting.
So you`ve decided on a criteria of what a batsmen needs to do, regardless of the circumstance he finds himself in or is asked to do for his team, and then you arbitrarily pick specific numbers and opinions that appear to show that you opinion must be correct.

And no I`m not going to get into a long engagement over it, I`m too long in the tooth and been through it to many times... I`m just gonna keep making the occasional snide and sarcastic comment like I`ve now got used to doing, because I really don't care enough.
 

trundler

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Steve Waugh has a better narrative around his best innings because he played in marquee series. Hadlee also suffers from this. To say Kallis never played any meaningful innings is frankly ridiculous. He has 13 more tons than Waugh ffs.
 

subshakerz

Hall of Fame Member
Steve Waugh has a better narrative around his best innings because he played in marquee series. Hadlee also suffers from this. To say Kallis never played any meaningful innings is frankly ridiculous. He has 13 more tons than Waugh ffs.
I said that when it comes to big impact innings, Waugh is far superior to Kallis.

I didn't say Kallis never played meaningful innings because that would be insane. But when you look back at his career, what are his standout innings?
 

subshakerz

Hall of Fame Member
Yeah Jacques Kallis was too much of an accumulator, therefore he was worse than renowned free flowing strokeplayer Steve Waugh.

Listen to yourselves.
Waugh was a gritty counterattacker in a lineup of strokemakers. He played a particular role to consolidate and then rebuild.

Dravid was a accumulator who let the other strokemakers in his lineup bat around him. That was his role to be the backbone of the innings.

In Kallis' case, until 2008, he was a more effective accumulator in an entire lineup of accumulators. He could have been more though.
 

subshakerz

Hall of Fame Member
I'm not sure that's a fair statement in Tests. In ODIs definitely, Kallis was a straight up bad player. But I doubt Steve Waugh scored much quicker, if at all, than Kallis in Tests
Waugh wasn't a fast scorer but he did counterattack when needed. But his role in the side wasn't to play strokes but consolidate and rebuild.
 

Bolo.

International Captain
That is my point. You need some qualifiers otherwise it is a useless stat.

The handful of ATG bowlers are the ones whom Waugh achieved his best performances against. Whereas Kallis has virtually no impact innings against big players to speak of.

I don't buy your argument though that the second tier bowlers of the 2000s were better than in the 1990s, and therefore bowling standards were better.
Every stat in cricket is useless without context. You are suggesting a measure that is virtually useless even with context.

I'm not arguing that bowlers in the 2000s were better than the late 80s/early 90s. I'm saying assuming the opposite is the case when the numbers do not suggest that it is is simply wrong.

My gut tells me bowlers in Waughs era were a bit better, but I'm not sure which of the two actually faced better bowlers- Waugh played against some really great attacks, but also played a huge percentage of his games against some extremely mediocre sides.
 

trundler

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https://stats.espncricinfo.com/ci/e...er_involve=1795;template=results;type=bowling

Overall bowling average in matches Steve Waugh played.


Overall bowling average in matches Jacques Kallis played.

Not even a 1 run difference. The difference in home conditions virtually cancels out the era difference. This means that it's fair to compare their base stats head to head. And there's a clear winner there.
 

smash84

The Tiger King
https://stats.espncricinfo.com/ci/e...er_involve=1795;template=results;type=bowling

Overall bowling average in matches Steve Waugh played.


Overall bowling average in matches Jacques Kallis played.

Not even a 1 run difference. The difference in home conditions virtually cancels out the era difference. This means that it's fair to compare their base stats head to head. And there's a clear winner there.
The number of great knocks played by Waugh surely has to count for something.
 

Bolo.

International Captain
https://stats.espncricinfo.com/ci/e...er_involve=1795;template=results;type=bowling

Overall bowling average in matches Steve Waugh played.


Overall bowling average in matches Jacques Kallis played.

Not even a 1 run difference. The difference in home conditions virtually cancels out the era difference. This means that it's fair to compare their base stats head to head. And there's a clear winner there.
Thats not really the right stat though... depends on the strength of teammates as much as quality of opposition.
 

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