World Crickets speed demons

[Richard]

its not that tough..how can anyone argue with someone who thinks the Pakistani team of 1999 was one of the all time great teams???? That shows incredible insight

And funnily enough, I've not genuinely claimed that Pakistan of 1999 were an all-time great team.
Might possibly have been if Waqar, Wasim and Mushtaq had been born 4 years later though.

 

[Richard]

u gotta be kidding richard

No, not at all.
Test-figures show enough - then you can watch them bowl if you need to.

 

[Richard]

There are very few in the 145+ bracket who haven't relished playing NZ in the last 5 years it seems.

I'm looking forward to seeing a jilted Brett Lee with an autumnal gale behind him in Wellington, if the Aussies decide to go that way.

B Lee - 32 test wickets @ 20.8
A Donald - 11 @ 17.7
M Ngam - 2 @ 17
M Sami - 14 @ 35.1
S Ahktar - 17 @ 5.2
S Harmison - 21 @ 22.1

TBF Lee's record owes quite a bit to managing to get wickets at the end of the innings.
As for Shoaib's record
Does say a bit about how he's bowled better against NZ than against some, though.

 

[Richard]

You mean to say the guy with the dodgy action, who has spent more time with professors in WA university and doctors than on Cricket field??

IKP is a far superior cricketer than the one you mentioned.

Shabbir's action has quite clearly been proven not to be dodgy at all - to those who can accept the term "optical illusion" at least.
And when he's spent his time on the proper Test-match field, he's taken 16 wickets at 31.25 (with 3 good matches out of 4).
As opposed to Pathan who's taken 24 at 41.79 (with 1 good one and 2 reasonable ones out of 9).
Doesn't take rocket-science to work-out who's the better bowler.

 

[Richard]

Whatt??? He played extremely well in the very first test series in Australia, he rocked Pakistan in Pakistan and have reduced their dependable batter (youhanna) to a very ordinary batsman. And he destroyed Bangladesh in few sessions.

The guy is great, there is no better cricket talent in the world than IKP.

So taking 4 wickets at 66.50 is "playing very well"; taking 12 at 28.50 is "rocking"; Youhana, with his average in the low 20s against decent Test-match teams is "dependable" (still managed to average 56 in that series, which said something about how poor India's attack was); and destroying Bangladesh means a single thing in terms of Test-cricket?
No.
Not in my book.

 

[Richard]

Pathan and Clarke are cricketers with 10 years of international cricket ahead of them.

They both have great talent.

They are unlikely to be consistent for some time.

Leave them alone and let them make their own mark on the game.

Thing is, Pathan has been very consistent - consistently poor.
As has Clarke against challenging bowling.

 

[SpeedKing]

Elton Chigumbera

Oh my days up until now, i had passed him off as an off spinner. Seriously i am shocked

 

[SpeedKing]

Chigumbera can bowl in the 90s????!!!!!!

that is how shocked i was as well

 

[SpeedKing]

96 was the top, and that was freakish, in that ODI against NZ at The Riverside.

yeah i remember that spell. IIRC we had just been bowled out for 100-odd. that was brutal spell to give some of us hope

 

[Richard]

Well, not hope of winning the game.

 

[Richard]

that is how shocked i was as well

Yet I watched him in The Second Test and certainly he was touching the 140s... I'm astonished.

 

[tooextracool]

Thing is, Pathan has been very consistent - consistently poor.
As has Clarke against challenging bowling.

against challenging pace bowling you mean. i dont really think that the pakistan pace attack in australia was better than indias.

 

[FaaipDeOiad]

As has Clarke against challenging bowling.

Right... so facing Harbhajan and Kumble on Indian wickets isn't challenging? He's had one bad series and all of a sudden everyone is declaring him hopeless, just like they did when he had a couple of bad ODI series. Now of course he is dominating in ODIs again, so people turn back to tests.

It's ridiculous, really.

 

[aussie]

Right... so facing Harbhajan and Kumble on Indian wickets isn't challenging? He's had one bad series and all of a sudden everyone is declaring him hopeless, just like they did when he had a couple of bad ODI series. Now of course he is dominating in ODIs again, so people turn back to tests.

It's ridiculous, really.[/QUOT

good points their faaip

 

[aussie]

aussie

by the way all my fellow english citizens do u guys have ashes tickets, their on the verge of a sell out, all four days at lord's , trent bridge and the oval are gone while in edgbagston is ok while here in manchester days 2 &3 (Friday and saturday) are gone, thank god i got tickets for day one. But goodness for guys like richard, neil and all my british mates here we got to get tickets quickly

 

[Deja moo]

I dont see what all the fuss is about Shabbir Ahmed ? He is'nt all that menacing, and the only positive I see for that guy is that he could turn out to be steady because of his willingness to stick to a plan and not keep changing it after he gets hit for a few. IMO, the guy to watch out for more than Shabbir is Umar Gul...

 

[Richard]

I doubt it in terms of Umar Gul - I've never been convinced about his accuracy, and he's had such a long-term injury I'll be surprised if he comes back even as good as he was before, let alone better.
It's happened, of course, but more often than not long-term back problems damage a bowler's career (and they can have effect on batsmen, too - see Atherton).
I've only watched Shabbir a couple of times very briefly, but he looks to me to have all the makings of a good bowler - he's the anethma of what's wrong with bowling in the 2000\01-onwards era. He's pretty accurate most of the time, and he can bowl both conventional- and reverse-swing in both directions.

 

[Richard]

Right... so facing Harbhajan and Kumble on Indian wickets isn't challenging? He's had one bad series and all of a sudden everyone is declaring him hopeless, just like they did when he had a couple of bad ODI series. Now of course he is dominating in ODIs again, so people turn back to tests.

It's ridiculous, really.

Facing Harbhajan and Kumble on pitches such as those at Bangalore and Nagpur - no, that's not very challenging, because by all accounts they didn't really turn very much.
All right, there's no real surprise anyone failed on the ****hede Stadium pitch, and Clarke did manage to score a 39* on the Chennai turner.
But he's not proven himself as an all-conquering player of the turning ball as some seem to think, no.

 

[Richard]

against challenging pace bowling you mean. i dont really think that the pakistan pace attack in australia was better than indias.

Yet it still had Shoaib (it also had Kaneria, who isn't a seamer).
India's was made-up of Khan, Nehra, Pathan and Agarkar - who are every bit as poor as Khalil, Asif, Rana Naved-Ul-Hasan and Sami. But they didn't have a good bowler to precede them.

 

[Swervy]

I doubt it in terms of Umar Gul - I've never been convinced about his accuracy, and he's had such a long-term injury I'll be surprised if he comes back even as good as he was before, let alone better.
It's happened, of course, but more often than not long-term back problems damage a bowler's career (and they can have effect on batsmen, too - see Atherton).
I've only watched Shabbir a couple of times very briefly, but he looks to me to have all the makings of a good bowler - he's the anethma of what's wrong with bowling in the 2000\01-onwards era. He's pretty accurate most of the time, and he can bowl both conventional- and reverse-swing in both directions.

maybe you only saw the Good Shabbir