Raymond Price ?

[Salamuddin]

What do you guys think of Raymond Price's bowling, based on his performance in the tests and the VB series ?

 

[Tom Halsey]

Handy and improving bowler by the looks of things.

 

[Mr Mxyzptlk]

Ray Price IMO is an above average bowler and will be truly world class within a year.

 

[Tom Halsey]

Try telling that to Richard...

"He is a fingerspinner!"

And so on.

 

[Langeveldt]

An excellent SLA bowler, the best in the world currently IMO...

Miles above average, but not outstanding, yet... A very good talent... I like the way he is very aggresive, pace bowlers mentality in a spinner....

 

[age_master]

he has looked good this series and looked pretty good when they were playing tests out here last year. he hasn't really been taken apart yet

 

[Tim]

Some would say Vettori is the best left arm spinner, but I would agree that on current form Ray Price is the best.

He's taking 1 or 2 wickets a game and only conceding 30 runs on average off his 10 overs which is a fantastic effort.
If only Zimbabwe had another good fast bowler then their attack of Streak, Price, Ervine & (whoever else) with Grant Flower as the back up would be good.

 

[Pratters]

I would say he is the best left arm spinner in the world right now.

Vettori is good but people also forget Md. Rafique, I must say.

Regarding PRice, he took up cricket pretty late which is why he isnt really very young. Wisden Asia Cricket did an article regarding this a few issues back. Come to think of it, Zimbabwe have a pretty handy bowling line up with Price and Streak. Blignaut is pretty okay. All they need are two more genuine bowles.. and yeah a LOT of batsmen

 

[Craig]

I dont rate Ervine's bowling - he's not accurate enough.

Also how on earth is Douglas Hondo still in the Zimbabwean team? He is useless.

 

[Neil Pickup]

Also how on earth is Douglas Hondo still in the Zimbabwean team? He is useless.

Because the alternative black players are Blessing Mahwire and Jordan Nicolle.

 

[Langeveldt]

I dont rate Ervine's bowling - he's not accurate enough.

Also how on earth is Douglas Hondo still in the Zimbabwean team? He is useless.

Nowhere near as useless as Vusi Sibanda

 

[Mingster]

Price and Flower has done an excellent job restricting Australia in the middle-stages of an innings.

Price's RPO is pretty decent compared to Vettori's.

 

[Tom Halsey]

Economical, and turns it a bit.

 

[Richard]

I don't personally think you'll get many better fingerspinners than Price.
Seriously, I genuinely think he is as good as Wilfred Rhodes, Hedley Verity, Underwood, Lock, Laker, Gibbs, Bedi, Chandra, etc.
However, on a normal wicket outside the subcontinent he won't threaten good batsmen, as has been shown.

 

[Don Ricardo]

I don't personally think you'll get many better fingerspinners than Price.
Seriously, I genuinely think he is as good as Wilfred Rhodes, Hedley Verity, Underwood, Lock, Laker, Gibbs, Bedi, Chandra, etc.
However, on a normal wicket outside the subcontinent he won't threaten good batsmen, as has been shown.

What exactly are you basing this on....you woundn't have even seen half of these guys bowl (somehow i cant imagine him taking 19 wickets against the aussies, even on a minefield)

Price could be better if he gave the ball more overspin, hence the flight would be more dangerous as the batsman would have greater difficulty judging the length- in this respect i rate kartik more highly than price, as in the vb series karitk used his excellent loop to good effect and had the batsmen in serious trouble, even without the massive sidespin/turn that Richard seems to believe is neccesary for good fingerspin.

 

[Adamc]

(somehow i cant imagine him taking 19 wickets against the aussies, even on a minefield)

I can't imagine him taking 10/10 in a FC match, or taking Bradman's wicket 8 times in tests either (i.e. I can't imagine him being as good as Verity).

 

[Richard]

If he played in their days and bowled exactly as he has in his Test-career, I most certainly can conceive his feats matching Verity and Laker's, in terms of SRs, ERs and averages.
Has anyone else ever taken 19 wickets in a First-Class match? No. That is an unfair comparison. One-off things like this aren't any use for comparisons.
It is the long-term happenings that matter.
And if you check Kartik has been hammered in The VB Series. Maybe he bowled well for the most part against WI last winter, and earlier this in The TVS Cup, but that was in conditions in India, where typically the ball turns and "sticks" in the wickets, making accurate fingerspin perfect for one-day-cricket.
Loop and drift are all well and good, and they are a very good compliment to turn, but they're not much without it.

 

[Don Ricardo]

I take your point about kartik's figures not being all that flash, but if you saw him bowl in the sydney odi against australia you would realise that he did look very dangerous and often had the batsmen (bevan in particular) misjuding his length.

I still struggle to see how you can compare Price with some of the finest bowlers of all time. Sure they may have played on more responsive decks, but its not incocievable that someone like lance gibbs (with his long fingers) actually put a whole lot more work on the ball than price and some other contemporaries do, and would be a better bowler in all conditions.

 

[Pratters]

I take your point about kartik's figures not being all that flash, but if you saw him bowl in the sydney odi against australia you would realise that he did look very dangerous and often had the batsmen (bevan in particular) misjuding his length.

The problem with Kartik is he doesnt have enough control. He will bowl some wonderful deliveries in his spell but a lot of the deliveries will be looseners. So batsmen dont need to do any thing silly on the 'dangerous' balls he bowls. Thats what separates awesome spinners with average ones.. - 'the control'. If Kartik can get more control, he can be very dangerous.. else he will remain average.

 

[Richard]

I take your point about kartik's figures not being all that flash, but if you saw him bowl in the sydney odi against australia you would realise that he did look very dangerous and often had the batsmen (bevan in particular) misjuding his length.

Just because someone makes a batsman look uncomfortable doesn't mean they're going to get them out.
Anyway, if you're wayward for the rest of the time it's still poor bowling.

I still struggle to see how you can compare Price with some of the finest bowlers of all time. Sure they may have played on more responsive decks, but its not incocievable that someone like lance gibbs (with his long fingers) actually put a whole lot more work on the ball than price and some other contemporaries do, and would be a better bowler in all conditions.

My point is that Price would likely be considered one of the finest of all-time if he had the advantages the earlier fingerspinners did. Gibbs and Chandra both had long or extensive fingers and there are plenty of bowlers who've got better and equal career figures than them.
Price turns the ball a lot on responsive decks, as much at times as Gibbs, Laker and the like did on wet pitches in the '50s and '60s respectively.
They are not really any different in my estimation.