Vernon Philander retires

[The Battlers Prince]

The guy spent a lot of his early years in tests averaging below 20 with the ball.
He was the second man to Steyn in those times and then has ended up being second string to Rabada though never not an important part of the side.

 

[tony p]

there will be 18 english counties looking to sign him up if he's interested.

had a fine career, opening batsman will sleep a little easier.

 

[stephen]

One of South Africa's modern greats. He's had a fine career but one feels his fitness prevented him from becoming a 100 test veteran.

Still he's had quite an accomplished test career, taking part in several memorable wins for South Africa.

 

[Dendarii]

He's had a fine career but one feels his fitness prevented him from becoming a 100 test veteran.

I'm not sure he would have made it to 100 - Steyn and Morkel didn't get there either and they had a five year head start on him (slightly more in Steyn's case), although both did have long periods out with injury. But even if Philander had had no fitness/injury problems he still may have fallen short. He's played 60 tests, and I don't know if he missed as many as 40 in that time but it seems a bit too much.

 

[Burgey]

Congrats to the big bloke on a terrific career. Always a pleasure to watch him bowl.

 

[ataraxia]

40 years later in South Africa ATG XIs he will be included ahead of Rabada, Procter, and Pollock. Didn't realise he was already 34. Will be missed.

 

[andmark]

Very good player. I hope he has a happy retirement.

 

[GotSpin]

I'm not sure he would have made it to 100 - Steyn and Morkel didn't get there either and they had a five year head start on him (slightly more in Steyn's case), although both did have long periods out with injury. But even if Philander had had no fitness/injury problems he still may have fallen short. He's played 60 tests, and I don't know if he missed as many as 40 in that time but it seems a bit too much.

Steyn was injured for most of his 30s and didn’t Morkel lose his place in the team

 

[Tom Flint]

40 years later in South Africa ATG XIs he will be included ahead of Rabada, Procter, and Pollock. Didn't realise he was already 34. Will be missed.

Rabada is going to end up South Africa's top wicket taker and is doing it at a similar average to anyone before him and is still young and improving. Steyn is the only one who in 40 years time will be remembered as better than rabada imo

 

[ataraxia]

Rabada is going to end up South Africa's top wicket taker and is doing it at a similar average to anyone before him and is still young and improving. Steyn is the only one who in 40 years time will be remembered as better than rabada imo

Rabada will be hard-pressed to get a better average than Philander and the latter's batting might form the difference between our successor's perceptions.

 

[GoodAreasShane]

He's still just 24 ffs

 

[Slifer]

Imo Philander is an atg but not quite in the upper echelon due to his away record. Simple as that.

 

[OverratedSanity]

The last remaining true fatty. Gun bowler.

 

[Daemon]

To often outbowl peak Steyn at home is no mean feat. Will miss tuning in to mornings of South African series with him and Steyn steaming in, even if we haven't seen that for a while now.

 

[honestbharani]

You cannot just downgrade the skill he had to basically be almost unplayable in helpful conditions. I mean, its one thing to get friendly conditions but quite another to be good enough to guarantee your team a win under such conditions. Its a skill that is rather underappreciated as people keep looking at how someone does in conditions not helpful to them. Vern was amazing at what he does and he won games for his country by maximizing his traits in certain conditions. Not sure what else an international cricketer is supposed to do. Will be missed and hope he has a good life post retirement. Wish him the best.

 

[Prince EWS]

To often outbowl peak Steyn at home is no mean feat. Will miss tuning in to mornings of South African series with him and Steyn steaming in, even if we haven't seen that for a while now.

I'm not sure we've ever seen it tbh. What we saw was Steyn steaming in and Philander trundling in but bowling unplayable deliveries and getting good/great batsmen out.

I thoroughly endorse hb's post. That's a great way to put it. Bowling in helpful conditions is obviously less difficult than bowling in unhelpful conditions and we should take into account when analysing his career, but at home he outbowled one of the ten greatest bowlers of all time in the same matches, and away he averaged a better than respectable 28.

We can talk about how he was a home track hero all we like but when you only play about 53% of your matches at home and still average 22 you're either the best home bowler of all time or you were pretty good everywhere. For Philander I think it was actually somewhere in between those two things, and that's not bad for someone almost everyone who had seen him bowl had vast reservations about, and he certainly proved he should have debuted a least a couple of seasons earlier given he'd been doing the same thing in four-day cricket for years.

He was a true great of the game whose accuracy and skill moving the ball gave me many toldyouso moments and even more cricketporn moments. He will be missed, and may Michael Holding eat a bag of dicks for his commentary over the years of this sombre day.

 

[SeamUp]

 

[ataraxia]

You cannot just downgrade the skill he had to basically be almost unplayable in helpful conditions. I mean, its one thing to get friendly conditions but quite another to be good enough to guarantee your team a win under such conditions. Its a skill that is rather underappreciated as people keep looking at how someone does in conditions not helpful to them. Vern was amazing at what he does and he won games for his country by maximizing his traits in certain conditions. Not sure what else an international cricketer is supposed to do. Will be missed and hope he has a good life post retirement. Wish him the best.

It says me, PEWS, *****, and 2 others like this. When I click on the two others it says ***** and SeamUp. It seems like ***** has found a way to give even more likes... by liking the same post twice.

 

[Prince EWS]

It says me, PEWS, *****, and 2 others like this. When I click on the two others it says ***** and SeamUp. It seems like ***** has found a way to give even more likes... by liking the same post twice.

This has happened a couple of times before. ***** is a true wizard.

 

[honestbharani]

It says me, PEWS, *****, and 2 others like this. When I click on the two others it says ***** and SeamUp. It seems like ***** has found a way to give even more likes... by liking the same post twice.

The ***** Legacy....