Possible. I rate Langer quite highly which is why I say it's marginal.
Test Cricket draft: QF : Skills vs Akshay @ Kensington Oval, Barbados
- Thread starter The Man Himself
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About Tony Greig and his exploits in the West Indies:
http://www.cricketcountry.com/artic...packer-to-change-fortunes-of-cricketers-18592
http://www.cricketcountry.com/artic...to-clinch-thriller-at-queens-park-oval-271287
http://www.cricketcountry.com/artic...packer-to-change-fortunes-of-cricketers-18592
http://www.cricketcountry.com/artic...to-clinch-thriller-at-queens-park-oval-271287
Langer was an able ally to the likes of Slater and Hayden, if I am not mistaken. And his position wasn't always secure. He was constantly dropped from the team. Smith is a warrior on his own. Can't imagine the devastating carnage Sutcliffe and Smith could do to any bowling line up. An ideal combination of Old and New,Left and Right batting, Counter attcking and Defense.
Edit: Also, if I am not mistaken, Smith was dropped as captain at some point and then almost immediately was begged to return to the fold. It has nothing to do with his batting ofcourse. But he was an inspiration.
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I personally rate Smith as the best opener of the modern era. Immense.
Well Gough was a fast, aggressive bowler, but he wasn't really fast enough to make it on that alone, like an Akhtar could. So he had to add more to it, like late swing, reverse-swing, and variations like off-cutters and slower balls to deceive the batsman. Of those weapons, I think he will still get to use everything except perhaps the reverse-swing here. Certainly not good enough to be a spearhead at this level, but should contribute. Gough's got good records against batsmen like Lara, Ponting and Slater, so he definitely can take big wickets.
More about Gough:
http://www.cricketcountry.com/artic...-cricketer-england-and-yorkshire-legend-31057
Skills' bowling will not prove to be enough. Swann is good but against this batting and specially against this middle order he'll be gobbled up and spat out with barely any trouble. Bob Willis has an atrocious record in WI. Not gonna cut it against this batting order. Cairns is bang average. Which only leaves Steyn and Asif. Asif relies far too much on swing imo and will be dealt with. I just don't see Skills being able to trouble our batsmen with that lineup especially as most of them have good records there.
Can we bowl out Skills' team? I reckon so. In Ambrose we have a GOAT bowler playing in home conditions and playing in conditions where he has an excellent record....well, the guy has an excellent record everywhere. He's also dismissed Border on 9 separate occasions in Tests so that's another thing to consider. He's got Border's number. Barnes is named in all the time XI so it's safe to say he was bloody brilliant and like Johnston could switch to spin if needed. Gough will become dangerous with the old ball. A very good reverse swing bowler who's got a good record against lots of very good batsmen. Also, Tony Greig adds balance and variety to the team which we perhaps lacked in the last game and another one with a superb record in WI.
Can we bowl out Skills' team? I reckon so. In Ambrose we have a GOAT bowler playing in home conditions and playing in conditions where he has an excellent record....well, the guy has an excellent record everywhere. He's also dismissed Border on 9 separate occasions in Tests so that's another thing to consider. He's got Border's number. Barnes is named in all the time XI so it's safe to say he was bloody brilliant and like Johnston could switch to spin if needed. Gough will become dangerous with the old ball. A very good reverse swing bowler who's got a good record against lots of very good batsmen. Also, Tony Greig adds balance and variety to the team which we perhaps lacked in the last game and another one with a superb record in WI.
Read the article. But it seemed like one of those freaks of nature incidents where he picked up Kanhai, Lloyd and Kalli all in under 5 runs. He seemed to struggle otherwise though. But I am leaning towards your team in the bowling anyway.
. One says Gough will be lethal with reverse swing and the other says he can use any of his tricks except the reverse swing.It's just skills' win this
I just can't see the bowling of the other team doing it
I just can't see the bowling of the other team doing it
It's the cricket equivalent of the Neville brothers
Also worth considering, when you have a potential goat sitting in the opposite dugout (despite the typos ) We are allowed to have different views, no? We're not deciding on a 'party line' behind closed doors, just giving it to you how each of us sees it. Up to you to decide.Gough practically changed his action to become even more deadly with the reverse swing. He was excellent at it. Wasn't too shabby at conventional swing either. He's good. very good!
Ambrose taking 8 for 45 at this ground.
We definitely have the bowling to take 20 wickets. Barnes with an unreadable style and Ambrose on home turf, with Greig, Gough, and Johnston all in support.
...
Random Thought: Bill Lawry looks like Tywin Lannister from the Game of Thrones, doesn't he.
That was early part of his career, but once he started partnering Hayden everything changed.If i'm not wrong they holds the best record for openers till date.
But a few of Skill's batting has Lefties. Lawry, Langer, Border. Even if Gough managed to get it to reverse swing (Unlikely in these conditions), it might not be as effective to the lefties wouldn't it ? I am not sure, this is just a guess.
Fair enough, But opening pair of Akshay is not marginally better than Skills's. It's leaps and bounds better.
Lara's a leftie and Gough has dismissed him 6 times in 8 meetings. Also, I looked into the reverse-swing issue in the West Indies. Turns out Andy Roberts claimed West Indian bowlers were the ones to pioneer reverse-swing in the first place, and all it requires is a little moisture in the pitch. Again, you have to look at Gough's effectiveness in Australian conditions to see he's not reliant on the help reverse-swing gets in England.
Gough swung the ball both ways with the old ball
Had watched Smith and Langer and liked both,i can't say same about other two.
Same here. But I thought Smith was ace, miles better than Langer. Langer always needed someone brilliant to complement him. Smith didn't. Sutcliffe played like a 100 years ago, so god only knows how the condition was back then. And I found nothing special in Lawry's record. He was painful to watch too as a batsman from what I read about him.
In test matches every player on their own,yea some partnership works well and some doesn't but still both need to contribute.
Langer is a brilliant test batsmen so does Smith.
Must say, Akshay has a very ideally suited middle order to combat the only opposition spinner in Swann. If Swann doesn't fire, can see skills finding it very tough to get 20 wickets because he's going to need wickets from his spinner in the present day WI pitches. Great match up, very close.
Re Gough I remember him being good with the old ball, getting it to reverse. Unless my memory is playing tricks with me, that's where Akshay and Akash would need him. Won't be much of a help early on in these conditions
Going for Akshay in this one. Skills clearly has the better middle order, but I really can't see his side taking 20.
Ah well, looks like everyone's already made up their minds on this. GG @Skills.
Not much difference between both side but voting is one sided really harsh on Akash/Akshay.
Openers: Akshay > Skills
Middle order: Skills > Akshay
WK+Batting: Skills >> Akshay
Allrounder: Akshay > Skills
Bowling: Akshay > Skills, slightly.
Without the above break up, stating the obvious: winning a test match is down to bowling. A very strong batting lineup means you won't lost test match at max but a bowling not capable of 20 wickets means you are not likely to win many tests. So, based on the team combo and points raised, I am thinking over this and still not able to separate the teams much. If we go back few years or a decade, Barbados was still a pitch with great assistance for bowling (Remember India's 102 all out vs Dillon and co. in 2002?). If we assume a Barbados pitch of that type then I think Akshay has advantage bowling first. Gough was a fantastic bowler and for much of his career, he had to carry England pace attack alone. Here he has Ambrose as partner and then of course there are Barnes and Johnston. This bowling attack is up against one of the most strongest middle order in this draft though and Skills' team bat deep.
When it comes to Skills' bowling, it is a good one too and well balanced. One negative is, Asif has played far too less tests but then one can also say that likes of Barnes played in an era where conditions were more favorable to bowling. Overall the bowling section is matched to me and I am rating Akshay slightly higher if we consider Barbados traditional pitch and that he is bowling first.
If we consider the new pitches in WI, this will likely result in a draw or favour team batting first. Skills' overall batting is lot better looking to me. Younis Khan, against Skills' bowling attack is not a strong point at all at 3. He has 14 'away' hundreds which is good number but 3 each are against fellow subcontinent teams, India, SL, Bangladesh. Similarly, Tillakratne, with that good bowling attack is a weakness. He was overall avg. outside subcontinent. Inzi should do good and so should Chanderpaul being he is in home condition but when overall, I compare the top 7 of each, Skills is quite stronger and that is making me vote for Skills. Both bowling units are overall capable of 20 wickets but Skills' is likely to do it for lesser runs.
Middle order: Skills > Akshay
WK+Batting: Skills >> Akshay
Allrounder: Akshay > Skills
Bowling: Akshay > Skills, slightly.
Without the above break up, stating the obvious: winning a test match is down to bowling. A very strong batting lineup means you won't lost test match at max but a bowling not capable of 20 wickets means you are not likely to win many tests. So, based on the team combo and points raised, I am thinking over this and still not able to separate the teams much. If we go back few years or a decade, Barbados was still a pitch with great assistance for bowling (Remember India's 102 all out vs Dillon and co. in 2002?). If we assume a Barbados pitch of that type then I think Akshay has advantage bowling first. Gough was a fantastic bowler and for much of his career, he had to carry England pace attack alone. Here he has Ambrose as partner and then of course there are Barnes and Johnston. This bowling attack is up against one of the most strongest middle order in this draft though and Skills' team bat deep.
When it comes to Skills' bowling, it is a good one too and well balanced. One negative is, Asif has played far too less tests but then one can also say that likes of Barnes played in an era where conditions were more favorable to bowling. Overall the bowling section is matched to me and I am rating Akshay slightly higher if we consider Barbados traditional pitch and that he is bowling first.
If we consider the new pitches in WI, this will likely result in a draw or favour team batting first. Skills' overall batting is lot better looking to me. Younis Khan, against Skills' bowling attack is not a strong point at all at 3. He has 14 'away' hundreds which is good number but 3 each are against fellow subcontinent teams, India, SL, Bangladesh. Similarly, Tillakratne, with that good bowling attack is a weakness. He was overall avg. outside subcontinent. Inzi should do good and so should Chanderpaul being he is in home condition but when overall, I compare the top 7 of each, Skills is quite stronger and that is making me vote for Skills. Both bowling units are overall capable of 20 wickets but Skills' is likely to do it for lesser runs.
Steyn will win this game for Skills. At least once in this match he will go into that god mode zone and bowl an absolutely unplayable spell, and if that ends up getting one of the middle order batsmen it's uphill from there on out. Very clear X-factor there.
Ambrose can and has repeatedly done that throughout his career. Plus the rest of our bowling is miles better.
Steyn on his own can't do much. He needs to have atleast a decent set of bowlers to assist him. Ambrose has the better supporting cast imo.
Don't mind the vote count per se, but I do wish more of the voters had stopped by to give their opinions. I have no idea what's decided the match for most people.
Probably the tabulation.
From someone who considers Ambrose as one of his all time favourites, I'll have to say thats a bit of a generic statement that one can make about any all time great fast bowler, of course they have done that throughout their career, which is why they are picked here. Steyn's 'zone' is something unique to him though, I'm talking of spells like the one to Sachin at Cape Town, or the one in Nagpur. Most of the bowling legends would have struggled to produce that magical spell on THAT surface, it's a combination of insane skill plus the heart of a lion. He's one of the most competitive bowlers you would find, and a situation like this is precisely the challenge he'll gladly accept, and there will come one session where he will go berserk. No doubt Ambrose will have a good game as well, but I predict Steyn to be the match winner here.
He does but it is also facing a tougher batting order.
It's not always as simple as comparing three bowlers individually. In a match like this you are looking at game changing moments and sessions, and if someone can produce a game changing session in this game, it would be Steyn.
Generic? Hardly. It's very easy to bring up such spells for every bowler especially for Ambrose who has feck loads of them throughout his career. That's not unique to Steyn at all. Plus Ambrose has much better support for him unlike Steyn.
No, it is, pretty much. The situations that bring out Steyn's best are unique to him, whereas Ambrose is far more reliable and doesn't need fire in his belly all the time, he's more of a machine who will deliver no matter what, whereas Steyn can be flat at times and can kill you off at others.
Hmm, that is possible. But how often Steyn produce these magical spells ? Once every test match or is it one of those things that only happens on special occasions ? If it's the first, I can see why you went for Skills.