subshakerz
Hall of Fame Member
Going off the previous thread, who is best with the old ball?
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Who is the best old ball bowler of all-time?
- Thread starter subshakerz
- Start date
Fuller Pilch
Hall of Fame Member
Wagner
subshakerz
Hall of Fame Member
Added
honestbharani
Whatever it takes!!!
Wasim, of the ones I have seen.
HouHsiaoHsien
International Debutant
Steyn. Some of his spells in Ind were crazy
subshakerz
Hall of Fame Member
The top are Wasim, Waqar, Steyn and Imran.
Here is how their reverses are different:
Steyn has snake balls. His releases it with a twist of his wrist, starting outside off and then deviates mid pitch to come in. The reason it is so effective is his stock ball goes the other direction, so batsmen are stuck mid crease getting bowled or lbw.
Waqar has curve balls. Like Steyn, except fuller, faster and with more inswing.
Imran had boom swing. Starting as inswingers, often wide of the crease, and then tailing in late, perhaps the most deviation from release of them all.
Wasim was the ultimate reverse master. His trademark was little change 3/4th down the pitch before sharp late swing to bamboozle.
m.youtube.com
Wasim wins by virtue of accuracy and being able to reverse both ways.
Here is how their reverses are different:
Steyn has snake balls. His releases it with a twist of his wrist, starting outside off and then deviates mid pitch to come in. The reason it is so effective is his stock ball goes the other direction, so batsmen are stuck mid crease getting bowled or lbw.
Waqar has curve balls. Like Steyn, except fuller, faster and with more inswing.
Imran had boom swing. Starting as inswingers, often wide of the crease, and then tailing in late, perhaps the most deviation from release of them all.
Wasim was the ultimate reverse master. His trademark was little change 3/4th down the pitch before sharp late swing to bamboozle.
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Wasim wins by virtue of accuracy and being able to reverse both ways.
Daemon
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Thanks for the videos but wtf is snake ball curve ball and boom swing lmaoThe top are Wasim, Waqar, Steyn and Imran.
Here is how their reverses are different:
Steyn has snake balls. His releases it with a twist of his wrist, starting outside off and then deviates mid pitch to come in. The reason it is so effective is his stock ball goes the other direction, so batsmen are stuck mid crease getting bowled or lbw.
Waqar has curve balls. Like Steyn, except fuller, faster and with more inswing.
Imran had boom swing. Starting as inswingers, often wide of the crease, and then tailing in late, perhaps the most deviation from release of them all.
Wasim was the ultimate reverse master. His trademark was little change 3/4th down the pitch before sharp late swing to bamboozle.
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Wasim wins by virtue of accuracy and being able to reverse both ways.
subshakerz
Hall of Fame Member
My own descriptions.
I go the complete opposite direction. His tendency to often bowl a bit short and reverse both ways led to a lot of wasted balls. He's also the slowest of the 4, which is incredibly useful for reverse. The late movement is what does quality bats in.
I reckon he is clearly the worst reverse bowler you are mentioning. There is still a decent argument for him being the best old ball bowler though. Better than these three in several other ways. Nothing tops quality reverse, but the ball isn't always reversing.
subshakerz
Hall of Fame Member
First off, Wasim pace wise was around Steyn level, usually 85 but can crank it to 90mph when needed. In fact, he was outright fast in the early 90s, late 80s.
And I don't know what you are on about. I have literally seen dozens of Wasim's reverse spells live and bowling short was never an issue, he was far more accurate than Waqar who would spray it around and generally pitched it up.
If you mean towards the end of his career, Wasim yes did bowl back of a length in reverse at times which batsmen just played and missed but he combined that with pitching it up as well.
Wasim for much of the 90s was literally the best I have seen at late movement with the old ball. In the death overs of ODIs he couldn't be knocked around. Good or set batsmen could still block or blast out Steyn and Waqar when they were reversing it because they knew where it was swinging. You couldn't do that with Wasim since he was swinging it both ways.
Wasim also used the crease with reverse far more effectively than Waqar, he could york it from around the wicket or over, or from around the wicket late swing it away for an edge.
shortpitched713
International Captain
Where are Garner and Ambrose? They were both excellent old ball bowlers. Reduced bounce of the old ball didn't mean jack **** to them. If anything could help it find the edge instead of flying over the bat handle.
Steyn was a fair bit faster than Wasim, Except when bowling within himself late career for spells. Live, I remember watching him clocked at 156 in the IPL (which does tend to be a bit suspect), and 152 in RSA (which tends to be more realistic).
I know Wasim had slowed a fair by then, but he was often struggling to hit mid 130s by the time we were seeing a lot of the gun. I'm pretty sure he hit mid 140s on some balls earlier in career, but Steyn had spells averaging mid to late 140s that I watched.
I don't have a particularly confident opinion on Steyn or Imran vs Wasim for reverse. But your impression of Wasim's reverse quality simply doesn't stand up in relation to Waqar. Wasim was much, much better with seam, bounce etc. But they have nearly identical records playing together. Where is Waqar catching up to be even remotely in the same league if Wasim was also a better reverse bowler?