Mike Atherton vs John Wright

[a massive zebra]

Two hard working, solid but unspectacular opening batsmen with similar records and identical high scores. Who was the better of the two?

 

[a massive zebra]

@OverratedSanity What's funny about my post?

 

[trundler]

No guessing who @Fuller Pilch voted for

 

[honestbharani]

@OverratedSanity What's funny about my post?

Its not what you said, its the way you said it etc.

 

[ashley bach]

Excellent comparison this one.

 

[Fuller Pilch]

No guessing who @Fuller Pilch voted for

It is an interesting comparison. Both faced excellent quicks in slightly different eras late 70s - early 90s vs late 80s (89) - 2001.

When one looks at their career overlap from Atherton's first test (10 Aug 1989) to Wright's last (16 March 1993) it can be seen that Atherton played 23 tests and scored 1374 runs at 32.71, while Wright played 19 tests and scored 1699 at 53.09.

 

[Burgey]

Wright and Gooch were two blokes who seemed to genuinely get better with age in their 30s. Very rare thing for a specialist batsman.

 

[The Hutt Rec]

I give Wright a lot of credit for that, his average kept climbing throughout his whole career. So looking at his overall stats maybe doesn’t show his importance to the side as his career went on.

 

[Burgey]

I remember when he came out here towards the end of his career. His stats popped upon the screen and, having basically watched him on and off since 80/81 I was flat out surprised how much they had improved over the years. By the end of his career he was a genuinely prized scalp.

 

[Kenneth Viljoen]

Mike Atherton , very good batsman once he got past zero and I guess he was really unlucky to play in an era of such great bowlers , and most of these great bowlers were entering or already at their prime when they faced poor Mikey with a decent volume of tests played against England ..
If you look at the Top 10 bowlers that dismissed Atherton in Tests you'd get the picture ..You'd struggle to find a better list of top 10 bowlers to have dismissed a batsman :

1) Glenn McGrath- 19 Dismissals
2) Curtly Ambrose - 17 Dismissals
3)Courtney Walsh - 17 Dismissals
4) Allan Donald - 11 Dismissals
5) Shane Warne - 10 Dismissals
6) Shaun Pollock - 6 Dismissals
7) Waqar Younis - 6 Dismissals
8) Craig McDermott- 5 Dismissals
9) Chaminda Vaas - 5 Dismissals
10) Ian Bishop - 5 Dismissals

OUCH ?

 

[Zinzan]

I remember when he came out here towards the end of his career. His stats popped upon the screen and, having basically watched him on and off since 80/81 I was flat out surprised how much they had improved over the years. By the end of his career he was a genuinely prized scalp.

Well yeah, had a better peak than Athers if you look at his last 3 years of Test batting

 

[Burgey]

Mike Atherton , very good batsman once he got past zero and I guess he was really unlucky to play in an era of such great bowlers , and most of these great bowlers were entering or already at their prime when they faced poor Mikey with a decent volume of tests played against England ..
If you look at the Top 10 bowlers that dismissed Atherton in Tests you'd get the picture ..You'd struggle to find a better list of top 10 of bowlers to have dismissed a batsman :

1) Glenn McGrath- 19 Dismissals
2) Curtly Ambrose - 17 Dismissals
3)Courtney Walsh - 17 Dismissals
4) Allan Donald - 11 Dismissals
5) Shane Warne - 10 Dismissals
6) Shaun Pollock - 6 Dismissals
7) Waqar Younis - 6 Dismissals
8) Craig McDermott- 5 Dismissals
9) Chaminda Vaas - 5 Dismissals
10) Ian Bishop - 5 Dismissals

OUCH ?

?Which one of these is not like the others?
Which one of these is not quite the same??

 

[ashley bach]

?Which one of these is not like the others?
Which one of these is not quite the same??

Had a very strong feeling you were a Sesame street fan.

 

[NZTailender]

Is it the bowler who dismissed Ricky Ponting 6 times?

 

[Fuller Pilch]

?Which one of these is not like the others?
Which one of these is not quite the same??

Left armer?? Has the longest name??

What are you on about?

 

[ashley bach]

Left armer?? Has the longest name??

What are you on about?

If the answers not Shane it's time to eat a hat.

 

[Fuller Pilch]

Left armer?? Has the longest name??

What are you on about?

If the answers not Shane it's time to eat a hat.

Burgey literally highlighted Chaminda Vaas and Warne is on the list.