Wisden's Cricketers of the Century

[Swervy]

yes that's very true. I saw that innings...it was amazing. Kapil played out the first two balls of that over for no runs and then just went berserk. And the very next over in the first ball Hirwani was dismissed by Angus Fraser. That was the same test where Gooch scored a massive 330 odd runs and India lost the match due to a bad decision by Azharuddin asking England to bat first after he won the toss.

a bad decision....how about India lost coz they were outplayed by a better England team

 

[PY]

And More dropped Gooch on 36.

 

[chicane]

a bad decision....how about India lost coz they were outplayed by a better England team

ahh how English fans crave for those good ol' times eh?

 

[Sehwag309]

ahh how English fans crave for those good ol' times eh?

It will interesting to watch their performance against NZ and Aus.

 

[Ford_GTHO351]

And Richards played arguably the Greatest ODI Innings Of All Time

It was a great innings considering that the West Indies were early on in trouble.

 

[Ford_GTHO351]

Now that you cant really beat Sunny Gavaskar, you bring on ODIs and what next let's bring VIV's bowling as well.

Here is a clue - If you bring ODI, Tendu beats them both. Think about it.

Here are the records of Gavaskar, Richards & Tendulkar in ODI's.

Gavaskar
108 Matches, 3092 runs@ 35.13, SR: 62.26
3.2 overs, 1 wicket@ 25.00, SR: 20.0, Economy: 7.50 rpo

Richards
187 Matches, 6721 runs@ 47.00, SR: 90.20
5644 balls, 118 wickets@ 35.83, SR: 47.8, Economy: 4.49 rpo

Tendulkar
333 Matches, 13134 runs@ 44.82, SR: 86.53
1112.5 overs, 116 wickets@ 48.29, SR: 57.5, Economy: 5.03 rpo

Well Richards was a better bowler than Gavaskar

Also the batting comparison between Richards & Tendulkar is fairly even with Richards having a better average & SR but he had not played as many matches as Tendulkar.

Richards was though a better bowler than Tendulkar

 

[chicane]

Richards was though a better bowler than Tendulkar

Tendulkar is quite underrated. His wrong uns are fantastic! The googly that foxed Warne in 2001 and recently Moin Khan in Pak, they had no F'n clue!

 

[honestbharani]

I think Richards had a bigger impact on the game than Sachin or Sunil simply by the way he played the game. It is all very well to suggest that Viv's greatness is brought down because of the fact that he didn't have to play his own bowlers. If that argument were to be extended, none of the Aussie batters since 1996 would actually find a place amongst the greats...... The fact remains he still dominated good (actually, very good) bowling attacks on very decent pitches for bowling and he made them all look like club bowlers. I agree that Sachin and Lara have done that but that is only a few times but Richards did that every time. I mean, if he got out for a low score ( a la the 33 at the WC 83 final) he still made the bowlers look bad while he was there. He only used a helmet towards the fag end of his career, was a decent bowler and a brilliant fielder..... Even Sachin has mentioned him as his inspiration... So for everyone saying that Sachin inspired millions, remember Richards inspired Sachin...




And as for his comparison with Sunny, there is no comparison.. Sunny was a solid, technically sound player who we would all want, if we wanted someone to bat for our life.... But when it came to bringing crowds to the ground, it was Sir Viv...




And about Sachin's 3 knocks Vs Sir Viv's 189*, remember that Sachin didn't carry the tail in any of those innings and almost in all of those matches, the pitches were really good for batting, whereas the pitch that day at Old Trafford was very juicy for the bowlers.... A line up as good as the Windies collapsed to 100 odd for 8...It shows how difficult that pitch was...... Perhaps Kapil's 175 should be second best, but even that wasn't better than Sir Viv's effort and the effortless manner he did it.....

 

[Ford_GTHO351]

Tendulkar is quite underrated. His wrong uns are fantastic! The googly that foxed Warne in 2001 and recently Moin Khan in Pak, they had no F'n clue!

But he is not consistent with the ball.

 

[tooextracool]

Tendulkar is quite underrated. His wrong uns are fantastic! The googly that foxed Warne in 2001 and recently Moin Khan in Pak, they had no F'n clue!

ive always been proud of moin khan and warney's batting abilities

 

[Ford_GTHO351]

Lol, and i thought Boycott was slow.

Well Boycott ended up having a lower career ODI batting strike rate than Gavaskar.

Boycott's ODI Batting SR: 53.56
Gavaskar's ODI Batting SR: 62.26

Though when Boycott hit his one and only ODI century (11th December 1979 against Australia at the SCG), he scored 105 off just 124 balls, very quick by his standards.

 

[twctopcat]

Well Boycott ended up having a lower career ODI batting strike rate than Gavaskar.

Boycott's ODI Batting SR: 53.56
Gavaskar's ODI Batting SR: 62.26

Though when Boycott hit his one and only ODI century (11th December 1979 against Australia at the SCG), he scored 105 off just 124 balls, very quick by his standards.

There is that time where Botham purposely ran out Boycott because he was so slow. I think that's true anyway.

 

[Neil Pickup]

yes that's very true. I saw that innings...it was amazing. Kapil played out the first two balls of that over for no runs and then just went berserk. And the very next over in the first ball Hirwani was dismissed by Angus Fraser. That was the same test where Gooch scored a massive 330 odd runs and India lost the match due to a bad decision by Azharuddin asking England to bat first after he won the toss.

The first match I remember. 333

 

[aussie_beater]

a bad decision....how about India lost coz they were outplayed by a better England team

No I think the teams were quite evenly balanced, and in that particular match the pitch didn't have any particular demons as was demonstrated by the fact that the total first innings score by the two teams exceeded 1100 runs.India just crumbled under pressure in the second innings. I am absolutely certain and at the time almost everyone who watched that match was too, that if Azhar had opted to bat first, India wouldn't have lost the match. Maybe India couldn't have bowled out England twice given the fact that Gooch was in excellent form and so was Lamb and Smith but I think it would have ended in a draw just like the other matches in that same series which was pretty much dominated by batting of both sides.

 

[tooextracool]

The first match I remember. 333

and 123

 

[marc71178]

sorry mate, but we did have them before they reached the point of avoiding Follow On, we just didn't enforce it......

Yes and either way, I don't think India were going to win that game...

 

[marc71178]

You are talking as if Viv Richards got to play against the mighty WI attack and averaged 100 against them.

You what?

Where have I said anything like that?

You made out like it was a criticism of Viv for making runs against weak attacks, yet Gavaskar did exactly the same.

And the list of PwC ratings seems to suggest the attack Viv played against were better...

 

[marc71178]

Very True. Really wanna see it.
Funny though that with India collapses never happened as long as Sachin was there, only after he was gone.

SRT is such a choker though!

 

[PY]

The first match I remember. 333

Ditto for me too. I even remember where I was when Gooch got to 300.

 

[marc71178]

Also the batting comparison between Richards & Tendulkar is fairly even with Richards having a better average & SR but he had not played as many matches as Tendulkar.

But on the flip side, he never played in such bat-friendly conditions (15 over rule etc.)