Will Matt Hayden go down as an all-time great?

[silentstriker]

To side track slightly, came across Tendulkar's numbers opening in ODIs, frankly they're just ridiculous.

13568 runs @ 48.11, 39 100s, SR 87.55

I knew he was good, but not THAT good. On the first page of results, only 2 other openers have maintained a 40+ average and an 80+ SR - Chris Gayle and Graeme Smith.

Along with Viv, I think he has a case for being the best ODI batsman of all time. I'd definitely put him down as the first names of my ODI all time XI. Richards, Garner, Bevan would be the other three 'automatic' picks for mine.

 

[Furball]

Along with Viv, I think he has a case for being the best ODI batsman of all time. I'd definitely put him down as the first names of my ODI all time XI. Richards, Garner, Bevan would be the other three 'automatic' picks for mine.

In terms of "greatest ODI batsman ever", there's only 3 possible correct answers - Sachin Tendulkar, Viv Richards or Michael Bevan.

 

[Mister Wright]

People are so easy to forget the situations were Hayden's class shone through. Okay, he scored 380 against Zimbabwe, however Zimbabwe were in a pretty good situation until Hayden took the game away from them. Hayden scored a double century and set up the match in India in 2001 after Australia were 5-99. He also scored more runs than the opposing team did in a test match against Pakistan. He was a great batsman who knew how to bat in difficult situations and it could be argued he often would take the game away from the opposition and wouldn't allow them to get on top of him early.

 

[zaremba]

Along with Viv, I think he has a case for being the best ODI batsman of all time. I'd definitely put him down as the first names of my ODI all time XI. Richards, Garner, Bevan would be the other three 'automatic' picks for mine.

Yep - my first 4 picks too I think

 

[oitoitoi]

In terms of "greatest ODI batsman ever", there's only 3 possible correct answers - Sachin Tendulkar, Viv Richards or Michael Bevan.

I'd knock that down to 2 possible answers - Sachin Tendulkar or Viv Richards

The likes of Hussey and Dhoni are now doing what Bevan did and arguably doing it even better.

 

[Son Of Coco]

I think Hayden can't go down as an all time great and is obviously a hack.
This comes through quite clearly when you study the evidence of the eminent statistitian Richard who quite succinctly points out that Hayden only scratched his nuts twice between 1996-98, failed to land a decent Marlin in 2004 and left Paprika out of his curry in 2006.

 

[Jono]

To side track slightly, came across Tendulkar's numbers opening in ODIs, frankly they're just ridiculous.

13568 runs @ 48.11, 39 100s, SR 87.55

I knew he was good, but not THAT good. On the first page of results, only 2 other openers have maintained a 40+ average and an 80+ SR - Chris Gayle and Graeme Smith.

Legend.

 

[wfdu_ben91]

He was lucky to play in a good team, in batsman-friendly times, in which he was able to capitalise to often-spectacular effect on his unquestioned ability to batter weaker teams.

Funny, considering that his lowest averages came against Bangladesh & New Zealand. Two of the weaker sides of the past decade. Everything you just said was a complete untrue myth.

 

[nightprowler10]

Everything you just said was a complete untrue myth.

Is there such a thing as a true myth? Agreed with the rest.

 

[The Sean]

By my reckoning:

The first two are virtually irrelevant as far as "great player" status is concerned. The fact that he bullied 380 from a dreadful Zimbabwe team and 181 from a mediocre New Zealand team proves nothing beyond his undoubted FTB credentials.

As for the rest, number of 100s, total runs scored etc are stats which are dominated by modern players due to the amount of cricket played today and (yes I know what you're going to say Ikki) the relative ease of run-scoring, for a multiplicity of reasons, in the last decade or so.

He was lucky to play in a good team, in batsman-friendly times, in which he was able to capitalise to often-spectacular effect on his unquestioned ability to batter weaker teams.

Hmmm, he certainly capitalised big time when the going was good, but you make it sound like he averaged mid-20s against non-minnows and decent attacks Mr Z, when the truth is his record against most is mightily impressive even by the standards of his era.

 

[Redbacks]

This is the exact reason we should feel no sympathy when England don't win the ashes for a period of time. One win and suddenly they become the measuring stick of an era