Richards still King!

[Prince EWS]

Yeah, Bevan's low career strike rate is a function of the bowlers he played alongside. His first innings strike rate is excellent for his era and his second innings strike rate, while low, is merely a reflection of the scores Australia were typically chasing and his recognition of the fact that he could consistently average more runs per innings as his strike rate dropped towards his optimal point for run-scoring (which was probably in the high 50s). Striking at 80 when you're chasing 220 is silly unless you'll score more runs before getting out striking at 80 than you will striking at 60, which is exceedingly rare among specialist batsmen.

 

[Furball]

So in layman's terms it's a case of going "right, we need 150 to win, we've got 35 overs to spare, I could smash sixes and risk getting out or I could just nudge and nurdle singles - we still win the game whether I knock off the required runs in 10 overs or do it with a ball to spare?"

 

[shankar]

Regarding the original article: Why is SR*Avg a good measure? I have a feeling it privileges strike rate more than it should given that Sehwag, at best a very good ODI batsman throughout his career is present in the top 10.

 

[Burgey]

Mind you, Richards and Bevan had completely different roles.

 

[Burgey]

So in layman's terms it's a case of going "right, we need 150 to win, we've got 35 overs to spare, I could smash sixes and risk getting out or I could just nudge and nurdle singles - we still win the game whether I knock off the required runs in 10 overs or do it with a ball to spare?"

Yes, essentially. Basically the skill there is the ability to react to and respond perfectly appropriately to the state of the game. Bevan was great at it, so is Dhoni, Hussey is very good at it.

 

[Burgey]

From top 50 players by strike rates in ODI matches among the top 8 nations, if we sort by the last year, Sir Viv has the highest strike rate by far. The only one comparable in the same era is Kapil Dev who had a SR of 93 (95 overall), but with a much poorer average of 22.6.

Kapil was so good to watch when he got going. Great player.

 

[Cruxdude]

Sehwag in the top 10 is a joke.

 

[Burgey]

Curious Dean Jones misses out. Always spoken of very highly as an ODI top order player, and rightly so.

 

[Top_Cat]

The top ten then looks like this: Richards (2.26), Dhoni (1.82), Bevan (1.77), Tendulkar (1.73), Jones (1.65), Sehwag (1.60), Hayden (1.57), Gilchrist (1.55), Greenidge (1.51) and Lamb (1.50).

Rightly so indeed.

 

[smash84]

same question as cruxdude. How come Sehwag is in the top 10?

 

[akilana]

same question as cruxdude. How come Sehwag is in the top 10?

to give company to hayden

 

[ankitj]

The difference between first innings and second innings SRs is quite interesting that I had not observed before. Turns out it holds for all 3 of the more successful finishers:

Bevan: 80 vs 68
Dhoni: 92 vs 84
Hussey: 93 vs 73

So fair to say that they are all at equal advantage/disadvantage?

Coming back to Bevan, I think he has already done very well to finish second in the table. Of course statistical exercises are never definitive. Dhoni cannot be considered better than Bevan, not as yet. So Bevan is only behind Richards, and honestly it's hard to argue a case for Bevan ahead of Richards.

 

[ankitj]

And just dug out stats for Zaheer Abbas and his era:

Zaheer Abbas: Avg = 47.62, SR = 84.80
His era (top 7): Avg = 28.57, SR = 64.50

This gives him an index of 40.38/19.07 = 2.12

That puts him behind only Viv Richards, just like PEWS's analysis. That's quite incredible!

 

[centurymaker]

sorry 64 games is a nothing sample.

 

[intcricket]

Viv was a genius. I'm very happy to see Zulu Klusener on the list.

 

[miscer]

viv to share top spot with tendulkar for me. reason?
this: http://stats.espncricinfo.com/ci/en...;spanval1=span;template=results;type=allround

tendulkar was basically a number 5/6 player and was 16 years old at debut. it wasn't until he became an opener that he even scored his first hundred. and since then he's been brilliant. 17 years too.

ofcourse you can't just drop the first 5 years even if he was 16 and even if he was down the order which is why I have him equal.

edit: going by this specifically viv will still top it ofcourse. (it gives SR a bit more importance than id like but so be it).

 

[Ikki]

Coming back to Bevan, I think he has already done very well to finish second in the table. Of course statistical exercises are never definitive. Dhoni cannot be considered better than Bevan, not as yet. So Bevan is only behind Richards, and honestly it's hard to argue a case for Bevan ahead of Richards.

How is it? It's hard to compare them sure, because they had different roles, but how is it hard to argue for Bevan?

Bevan is the greatest finisher of all-time with countless examples of saving Australia's ass. In WCs alone he has plenty of examples of taking Australia to a win when the match was almost gone. I remember a post I made with regards to this, I'll post it again. What this guy did is incredible and almost incomparable. He also did it against incredible attacks, probably the best era in terms of ODI bowling as well.

-----

2nd SF: Australia v West Indies at Mohali, Mar 14, 1996 | Cricket Scorecard | ESPN Cricinfo - Aus against Windies; Aus collapse to 4-15; Bevan comes in and helps add about another 160 and helps Aus win the match. Reminds me of his last ball 4 victory against WIndies in another match - that was incredible too.

16th Match: Australia v Pakistan at Leeds, May 23, 1999 | Cricket Scorecard | ESPN Cricinfo - Aus against Pakistan; Aus fall to 4-101, chasing 276; Bevan helps Aus fightback to 214 without a loss; however not enough as Aus lost by 10 runs.

2nd SF: Australia v South Africa at Birmingham, Jun 17, 1999 | Cricket Scorecard | ESPN Cricinfo - Aus against S.Africa; Aus fall to 4-68. Bevan and Waugh carry the fightback to 158, however Waugh goes. Bevan is left with the tail and takes Aus to a respectable 213. With some magic from Warne and a last ball blunder by Donald; Aus make the final in a thrilling match.

37th Match: Australia v England at Port Elizabeth, Mar 2, 2003 | Cricket Scorecard | ESPN Cricinfo - Aus against England; Aus collapses to 4-48, chasing 204. Bevan comes in and steadies the ship to 111. The next 4 wickets go in a hurry for only 24 runs. Another crisis but Bevan with help from Bichel take 135 to 208, winning the match with 2 balls to spare. An unforgettable match (as all these matches are really).

5th Super: Australia v New Zealand at Port Elizabeth, Mar 11, 2003 | Cricket Scorecard | ESPN Cricinfo - Aus against New Zealand; Aus collapse to a pumped up NZ to an embarressing score of 7/84. Bevan and Bichel once again put on a big partnership taking the score to 208. The Aus bowlers make the NZ bowlers look human and bowl NZ out 112, giving Aus the win.

And just LOOK at those attacks: Ambrose, Walsh, Bishop; Wasim, Akhtar, Saqlain; Donald, Pollock, Kallis and Klusener...

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I didn't get to witness Richards in his pomp so all I have are his stats and some videos. Clearly, he is the best top order batsman ever. But having seen Bevan I find it hard to believe there was a batsman better suited to ODIs than him. He didn't dominate the opposition, he didn't score at a thrilling speed - in fact it gave you heart-attacks if you were Australian - but he just won...from incredible positions. I am not sure if you are familiar with football, but think Istanbul 2005; and it's as if Bevan had a career with many Istanbul 2005s.

 

[Athlai]

This not being about Dicko is disappointing.

 

[miscer]

5th Super: Australia v New Zealand at Port Elizabeth, Mar 11, 2003 | Cricket Scorecard | ESPN Cricinfo - Aus against New Zealand; Aus collapse to a pumped up NZ to an embarressing score of 7/84. Bevan and Bichel once again put on a big partnership taking the score to 208. The Aus bowlers make the NZ bowlers look human and bowl NZ out 112, giving Aus the win.

And just LOOK at those attacks: Ambrose, Walsh, Bishop; Wasim, Akhtar, Saqlain; Donald, Pollock, Kallis and Klusener...

------

that last one is one of my favorite odis ever. i saw it live and bond's bowling was absolutely brutal. i sooooo wanted NZ to win that

 

[Ikki]

I remember it clearly. Was at a resort with the fam and at 7/84 I felt like throwing the TV out of the room. NZ also had the wood on us at that time winning the last 4/6 against us. Bond was unplayable. Bevan and Bichel were incredible. I think my life-span has been shortened watching these matches though