The best ever players of spin bowling?

[LongHopCassidy]

KP and Clarke obviously the best of the contemporaries, along with Tendulkar and Dravid way back when.

Some of the historical ones throw up a few surprises:

Bill Ponsford - every spinner in the Sheffield Shield allegedly much preferred to bowl to Bradman than Ponsford.

Javed Miandad, although he had a bit of help from home umpires.

Salim Malik, the first player to get the better of Warnie after he became a fixture in the Australian team. Warnie rates him third as the most annoying to bowl to after Tendulkar and Lara.

Sunil Gavaskar - his tremendous record against the Windies was actually mostly gained against flogging Lance Gibbs and co. Freakish record against Pakistan before they came to rely mostly on Imran and Wasim.

Darren Lehmann - Murali after the Australian tour of SL in 2004 said nobody had ever played him better.

Brian Lara, obviously.

MS Dhoni actually averaged over 90 at an SR of 65 against spin bowling between 2011 and 2013.

Navjot Sidhu, of all people, actually gets a lot of shout-outs from his contemporaries for his attacking technique against spin.

Graham Thorpe pretty much stood alone in the English teams as the go-to player for stopping collapses in India and Australia.

Andy Flower was one of the few players to treat Kumble and Harbhajan with absolute contempt in their own backyard.

And interestingly, for all the **** Matthew Hayden cops on this forum he's never attracted criticism on CW for his technique against spin. Freakish record in India.


Any other good ones?

 

[Burgey]

Nah, think you've pretty much named all of them.

/thread.

 

[Red]

Mark Waugh

 

[watson]

Maurice Leyland reckoned that he had "O'Reilly in his pocket", and Len Hutton agreed with him. So I guess any batsman who bats comfortably against Bill O'Reilly must a good player of spin bowling

 

[fredfertang]

Keith Fletcher, though he didn't like the quick stuff

 

[Immenso]

John F Reid of NZ. Surprisingly, a NZer who could play spin. No idea how he rates compared to others listed in thus thread, but NZs almost specialist anti-SCer of the 80s. Scored 6 centuries in a short career, 3 of them against Pakistan (including 2 at home, 1 away), I against India (at home), 1 against Sri Lanka (away).

Feasted on Abdul Qadir and Iqbal Qasim.

 

[OverratedSanity]

Two HTBs:

Jayawardene... Absolutely monstrous at home and it's not fair to label him as a guy who does his scoring only on fly tracks. He's done phenomenally well over the years on dustbowls as well, like the match against England at Galle a couple of years back where no one apart from him could hold the bat properly.

Sehwag: It's amazing how a player with such piss poor, almost non existent footwork against pace has such flawless footwork against spin. Unlike Lara and Clarke he doesn't really come down the pitch much, atleast not as often as them... instead he either comes completely forward to smother any spin the pitch might provide or use the crease and go right back to give himself enough time to react to the turn. Imo, the ultimate example of how to play spin.

Dravid while overall he wasn't at Lara-Sehwag level against spin, his batting against Gramme Swann on that England tour was a lesson to everyone watching on how playing late helps.

Apart from these guys, Tendulkar is one that came to mind immediately but his case is a strange one. He used to be amazing against spin but now he's become shockingly bad. I think the problem is simply a loss of that quick feet movement that allowed him to come down the track coupled with him losing one of the best aspects of his play: balance... He once said that he believed that good footwork was not about getting to the pitch of the ball everyone but about getting into a position where you're in perfect balance. (was probably talking about footwork against pace but it kinda applies here) By trying to do a Sehwag, and trying to get to the pitch every time, he's lost his wicket an extraordinary number of times recently by stretching too much and falling on his bum.

 

[robelinda]

These guys just mauled this chinaman bowler.

 

[Maximas]

you're a legend Rob, been looking forward to seeing this!

 

[kingkallis]

Azhar and Navjot Sidhu were wonderful batsman of spin as well.

 

[sambha]

How come Dhoni averages 90 but strike rate is only 65??

 

[Dan]

How come Dhoni averages 90 but strike rate is only 65??

...because he scores, on average, 90 runs between dismissals to spinners and scores, on average, 65 runs in every 100 balls of spin he faces, perhaps?

 

[Goughy]

Azhar and Navjot Sidhu were wonderful batsman of spin as well.

I came here to post Azharuddin. He may have been sketchy as **** but he could play spin as well as any man I have seen.

 

[JontyPanesar]

From everything others have told me about Navjot (and what I've seen of that 1998 series v. Australia), I think he might be the best.

Shout out to Pujara among contemporary players. People forget his innings at Mumbai.

Ganguly was pretty damn good vs spinners. Whenever I saw him face Warne, there was this swagger of pure disdain. And more often than not, Ganguly would cream him (only to predictably fall to one of Australia's great pacemen). Sehwag's disdain and ability to back that ability was equally admirable. I think it would be equally unfair to exclude Laxman

Andy Flower and Matt Hayden were the kings of the sweep shot

 

[JontyPanesar]

Oh, and how could I have forgotten...Chanders! Seriously underrated. The most flowing reverse sweep I've ever seen. Soft hands. A beast in India

 

[JontyPanesar]

Maurice Leyland reckoned that he had "O'Reilly in his pocket", and Len Hutton agreed with him. So I guess any batsman who bats comfortably against Bill O'Reilly must a good player of spin bowling

Being able to own a quickish leggie doesn't seem to me to be the best way to judge one's ability to play spin bowling.

 

[Migara]

Two names, Navjot Singh Sidhu and Virender Sehwag, Absolute beasts vs spin. Of others I have seen Kapil Dev, Vinod Kambli, Javed Miandad, Azhar-ud-din, Darren Lehman, Lara, and Arjuna Ranatunga were special against spin. Sachin was very good, but never was as exciting as above because these guys did hit the half a dozen shot off the spinners ignoring the match situation.

 

[Goughy]

These guys just mauled this chinaman bowler.

Wow. In the space of a couple of seconds one of the most unbelievable catches and then one of the worst LBW decisions I have ever seen - in fact I can't think of one worse. Wasn't even worth a half appeal.

I wish there were more replays available of Taibu's dismissal. I'm still not sure how it was caught. Looked like witchcraft on first viewing.

 

[Goughy]

I also thought Slater was exceptional for an opening bat but my viewing was limited to him dispatching English spinners so I accept that I have not seen his full resume.

 

[OverratedSanity]

I wish there were more replays available of Taibu's dismissal. I'm still not sure how it was caught.

It was Ponting... All the explanation one needs.
Said it before but it just shows his extraordinary all round versatility as a fielder. He was brilliant in literally every position he was put in. Complete freak. Jonty has nothing on him