Crazy seeing Anderson and Broad top of the all time seam wicket takers ahead of McGrath
English cricket thread
- Thread starter Samid
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The way they've both spurred each other on, particularly over the last few years, is incredible.
Absolutely. How long can they both go on for do you think?
Christ, thought the 3rd Umpire was going to ask for ultra edge then 
How do people rate Anderson against McGrath? I'd put McGrath well ahead personally, but Anderson is incredible for longevity and consistency in English conditions.
McGrath at his best was near enough untouchable, but Anderson deserves to be up there in the conversation with him.
Yeah, He's definitely in the conversation with his class and the pure number of wickets. It's the average of McGrath which raises him above for me, and that's taking into account it dropped a bit towards the end of his career.
McGrath is well ahead, outside England Anderson’s record is nothing special, 74 matches 238 Wickets @30.61
McGrath outside Australia 58 matches 274 wickets @20.81
Christ, thought the 3rd Umpire was going to ask for ultra edge then
Declines can happen quickly but they've got the appetite and skill to adapt to play for a few more years yet. They seem realistic about their playing time too. Whilst the likes of Archer are out of contention, they'll have a place for sure.
130 to win
They're not in the same class.
If he’d taken that catch first ball I reckon they win.
What a crazy test match. Not the least weird is seeing England 80-0!
Well played Zac. Pretty much guaranteed the win.
Booo umpires...
Blame this suit!
So instead of winning in front of a big crowd , England will have to come back tomorrow to finish things off in front of most likely an empty ground.
Stupid.
Stupid.
Well played Lees and Crawley
The 2 openers play brilliantly. I think they need to make the laws more flexible so that if a test can be finished on a day rather than playing an hour the following day that it could be finished.
Crawley’s going to live off the 50 for the next year or so isn’t he?
He might do well in Pakistan.
Shame it couldn’t finish up this evening.
Has been a brilliant summer but we are still pretty fragile in a lot of areas that will be exposed away from home.
Good to get some positivity back though!
Has been a brilliant summer but we are still pretty fragile in a lot of areas that will be exposed away from home.
Good to get some positivity back though!
I wouldn't say it is 'crazy'.
McGrath retired early in comparison to Anderson and that shows. There's no reason why he could not have carried on bowling for a few more seasons as his numbers were still good when he called time on his career, but it probably made perfect sense to McGrath because he had achieved so much and Australia had young bowlers knocking on the door and almost demanding selection. McGrath may have felt he had other things in his life that he wanted to work on, such as his foundation for his late wife.
It is interesting that some cricket fans, particularly those from the subcontinent, have this almost dismissive view of Broad and Anderson as being almost run-of-the-mill medium pace bowlers who have cloudy bowling conditions to thank for taking hundreds of wickets apiece.
Personally speaking, I regard McGrath as the better bowler but Anderson is clearly of a similar class and this is borne out by his stats over the last ten years. When listening to McGrath, he always talks about Anderson in those kind of terms, as an equal. Like McGrath, Anderson's stats have become exceptionally consistent, which shows that Anderson rarely gets attacked even if he's not got things going in his favour. But yes, McGrath's are a bit more impressive.
What I find crazy is how Anderson and Broad are seen as just 'lick above average' bowlers by some cricket fans around the world. I really find that bizarre and just suppose it is because they are not particularly pacy.
McGrath for most of his career was ahead. Better average, better away from home. The remarkable thing is about Jimmy is he just keeps getting better and better. His performances in the past 4-5 years have been phenomenal, and he's had some of his most impressive returns in this time, regularly having series averaging under 20, and getting good figures away even in Australia and India where he didn't do so well before. I think you could make an argument that Jimmy at 36-38 or so reached a higher peak than McGrath did, but overall McGrath had a more sustained period of elite performance.
On the contrary, both of them are at their absolute best when they feel slighted by being left out. Broad showed it time and again and Anderson has done so this year after the dropping for the West Indies tour.
Would be great for the confidence of these two if we could win by 10 wickets, just going forward as I appreciate it's the last Test of the summer.
SA will want to avoid a 10 wicket defeat against their name however realistically the edge is bound to come off their performance this morning.
SA will want to avoid a 10 wicket defeat against their name however realistically the edge is bound to come off their performance this morning.
England win by 9 wickets
Pakistan away next which is will be a massive challenge.
We will get smashed.
Are we even sure it’ll happen with the flood situation?
Our bowling looks a fair bit toothless overseas without a real change of pace.
I'm not sure what the situation is where the grounds are located. Effective spin bowling will also be an issue.
So obviously after yesterday this post came to mind, and I think that would be very harsh with two finals and a decent county championship season even though the points deduction has seen us go from unlikely to just about impossible.
I am thinking it’s probably Dane’s time to hand over captaincy mind. Even if he wasn’t skipper yesterday, that T20 final was horrific from him.
Yep, it would certainly be harsh. Maybe they need someone with a bit more Big-game experience in the dressing room though.
All looking very positive at Lancs tbh. Let's hope we can take the next step next season.
Darren Stevens is available…
That would be amazing. Imagine the frothing mouths and gnashing of teeth as the One Day Cup transfers from Darren Stevens' old team to his new one
Hail Statan!
The ban on saliva on cricket balls have been made permanent.
David Gower on T20 duty will never not be weird.
Good start by Pakistan.
Considering the start made, I think we are 20 runs short. Spin & variations from the seamers looks to be the way to bowl.
What the feck is this pitch Essex have produced, 21 wickets so far on day 1