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The bowler of the 90s and 00s

Choose TWO bowlers of your choice as the best of 90s and 00s

  • Total voters
    71
Furball

Furball

Evil Scotsman
Anyone who doesn't vote for Glenn McGrath is off their heads, frankly.

Never mind the 90s/00s, there's a pretty decent case for him being the best quick of all time.

Have also gone for Warne. Statistically it's Murali but I don't care. Warne was pretty ****ing great himself, spent the 2nd half of his career bowling half his Tests in a spinner's graveyard (seriously, check out his home record post 2000), and just has so many intangibles that put him miles clear of Murali in my eyes.

Wasim would have been a close third to those two.
 
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andmark

andmark

International Captain
viriya said:
I beg to differ:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D1QA8pIjRwM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=awD_HLBRkSE
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-UUXgc1rLMQ
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Murali was certainly great, but I still have never seen him nor anyone else spin like this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aA2mJP-UgPY
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7unkwjAgKq0 Should skip to the 1 minute mark for this one
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dJeFsTFECbM Particularly bowls 2 and 3 for the last one.

Murali's doosra was epic in fairness though.
 
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Burgey

Burgey

Request Your Custom Title Now!
McGrath for mine. What he did in the 2000s which is regarded as a decade dominated by flat decks was mind boggling. Then occasionally he'd get on a wicket with a bit in it and it was ridiculous. He hardly bowled a ball that didn't test a batsman. I wouldn't choose him as a bowler to watch over guys like Akram, Warne and Murali, but he just got ****s out. All the time.

The other choice is a lot more difficult. Ambrose scared the **** out of me whenever he had the ball. Didn't want him bowling at our blokes at all. Akram I could watch all day, everyday. What a cricketer he was. Warne and Murali were both amazing bowlers too, and Donald belongs in this argument too. Think I'd go Ambrose.
 
Bahnz

Bahnz

Hall of Fame Member
Yeah McGrath takes it, and fairly comfortably. The battle for second place is between Warne and Murali in my opinion. I tend to side with Warne, though it's very, very close. Murali's bowling in the 2006 Oval test was just phenomenal.
 
Red

Red

The normal awards that everyone else has
McGrath was just ****ing incredible, all the time.

I'd say he's one of the most influential cricketers of all time in terms of his impact on his team. I felt confident we could win any test from almost any position with McGrath in the team. His loss (thru injury or whatever) from a team was felt more than Warne's imo.

In spite of him being boring to watch, he was amazing to watch. Which doesn't make sense, but it does.

Ambrose too. Doesn't get enough recognition. Amazing bowler who probably should have been the best of all time if it wasn't for his petulance at times.
 
kyear2

kyear2

International Coach
Burgey said:
McGrath for mine. What he did in the 2000s which is regarded as a decade dominated by flat decks was mind boggling. Then occasionally he'd get on a wicket with a bit in it and it was ridiculous. He hardly bowled a ball that didn't test a batsman. I wouldn't choose him as a bowler to watch over guys like Akram, Warne and Murali, but he just got ****s out. All the time.

The other choice is a lot more difficult. Ambrose scared the **** out of me whenever he had the ball. Didn't want him bowling at our blokes at all. Akram I could watch all day, everyday. What a cricketer he was. Warne and Murali were both amazing bowlers too, and Donald belongs in this argument too. Think I'd go Ambrose.
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Fully agree with that. Just like Ponting with the batsman poll, Donald is just behind the two I voted for and would have been my 3rd pick ahead of Warne and Muralitharan.
 
Adders

Adders

Cricketer Of The Year
Monk said:
I felt confident we could win any test from almost any position with McGrath in the team. His loss (thru injury or whatever) from a team was felt more than Warne's imo.
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Way more, Australia carried on business as usual through Warnes absences (mind you having SCG Mcgill as cover helped a little there I guess) Don't have the figures to hand but I recall the Aussies win loss ratio took a massive dive when McGrath wasn't playing. That's amazing in itself when you think of the quality of the rest of the squad.

So definitely McGrath for mine buy a distance, second I'll have to go with Murali.
 
Red

Red

The normal awards that everyone else has
I think that if McGrath hadn't stood on that ball at Edgbaston in 2005 we'd have won that test, and probably that series.

I think that series showed how important McGrath was to Australia. The two tests that England won were the two that McGrath missed thru injury. And in spite of how immense Warne was in that series, it wasn't enough.

It was great for world cricket for England to win that series, but the series really showed how McGrath was the difference between Australia and the other teams of his time.
 
viriya

viriya

International Captain
I think for the 2000s there's a clear winner. Murali had probably the best decade any bowler has ever had:
Bowling records | Test matches | Cricinfo Statsguru | ESPN Cricinfo
McGrath had a slightly better average (as fast bowlers usually do), but Murali took an incredible 565 wickets at almost 7 wickets/match.. never seen before stuff.

For the 90s I think it's a toss-up between some great fast bowlers:
Bowling records | Test matches | Cricinfo Statsguru | ESPN Cricinfo
Any one of Ambrose, Wasim, Waqar, Donald or McGrath would be decent picks.

If the 2 picks aren't separated by decade then Murali and McGrath would make sense.
 
harsh.ag

harsh.ag

Cricket Web: All-Time Legend
Furball said:
Anyone who doesn't vote for Glenn McGrath is off their heads, frankly.
Click to expand...
I love McGrath. And while it is true, IMO, that he was a bigger match winner than Warne, I still think picking Warne and Murali is a good choice, as they are the two best practitioners of their art in history. McGrath is closely followed by Ambrose in this very time period. Yes, the 2000s really set him apart, but I think it was also thrown in sharp relief because of a lack of other great fast bowlers around the world.
 
bagapath

bagapath

International Captain
kyear2 said:
Over Marshall?
Click to expand...
the fact that macko always had two or, some times, even three fast bowlers operating with him, of which two others were also in the ATG bracket, like holding and garner till 87, and walsh and ambrose afterwards, does make the attack he was part of, a proper team operation. OTOH, hadlee was the lone gun. he was new zealand and new zealand was him. windies could not beat him at home. he beat england in england. and australia in australia. more than the great garner and the giant lillee on his last legs, imran and marshall were among the most dominant bowlers of the decade. but hadlee was more influential than even those two stalwarts. yeah. he was the bowler of the 80s.
 
OverratedSanity

OverratedSanity

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Furball said:
Anyone who doesn't vote for Glenn McGrath is off their heads, frankly.

Never mind the 90s/00s, there's a pretty decent case for him being the best quick of all time.

Have also gone for Warne. Statistically it's Murali but I don't care. Warne was pretty ****ing great himself, spent the 2nd half of his career bowling half his Tests in a spinner's graveyard (seriously, check out his home record post 2000), and just has so many intangibles that put him miles clear of Murali in my eyes.

Wasim would have been a close third to those two.
Click to expand...
Admittedly I only voted for Ambrose because I knew McGrath would dominate the poll anyway. He really was amazing. I don't think I've ever seen a bowler who was never ever mediocre. He was almost always a threat... Even guys like Ambrose had stretches where they'd look ineffective and would resort to containing and even be hit around a*bit. McGrath was just always good, no matter what the situation, no matter what the conditions.

That said, I really believe that the fact that Ambrose, Donald, etc. retired early in the 2000s helped his legacy a lot and kind of artificially inflates how good he was compared to them.

Still has a case for being the best quick ever, mind. And any top 10 of all time fast bowlers should imo begin with 1.Marshall 2.McGrath
 
ohnoitsyou

ohnoitsyou

International Regular
Ambrose and then Murali/Warne/McGrath.

Every time i watch footage of Ambrose, he scares the **** out of me. Maybe doesn't have numbers quite as good as McGrath, but anyone who rates McGrath as clearly better is kidding themselves.
 
bagapath

bagapath

International Captain
ohnoitsyou said:
Ambrose and then Murali/Warne/McGrath.

Every time i watch footage of Ambrose, he scares the **** out of me. Maybe doesn't have numbers quite as good as McGrath, but anyone who rates McGrath as clearly better is kidding themselves.
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he certainly does. but for his average against india, his record is flawless.
 
J

Jassy

Banned
McGrath and Warne for me. The greatest bowling pair ever and arguably the most important members of the greatest side of all time.
 
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