Lee's the Best: Ponting

[Brett_Lee]

Australian captain Ricky Ponting has labelled speedster Brett Lee the best one-day bowler in the world after the tearaway quick grabbed career-best figures to destroy South Africa in the VB Series clash at Telstra Dome on Friday.

Lee grabbed two wickets with the new ball and returned in the middle of the innings to take three more as the Proteas slumped from 3-114 in the 32nd over to be dismissed for 186, 60 short of their target.

The 29-year-old, the world's best one-day bowler according to ICC rankings, has now taken 24 wickets at the impressive average of 15.95 from his past 10 matches, while conceding just 4.37 runs an over, silencing critics who felt he could be at times expensive.

Lee's 5-22 on Friday bettered his previous best of 5-27 against India in 2000 and triggered a dramatic South African batting collapse, the tourists losing 5-10 as their hopes for recording a second straight victory over Australia evaporated.

"He'd certainly be pushing for it. I think he probably has been and the stats would probably back it up the last couple of years," Ponting said, when asked whether he thought Lee was currently the best one-day bowler in the world.

"His economy rate that everyone was once speaking about is no longer being spoken about either which is great."

"There's been a lot made of it a couple of years ago and Brett to his credit has sat back and worked his own game out and worked out what's going to work well for him at this game and at this level."

"And he's just done everything. Time and time again he takes wickets with that new ball."

"And if he keeps doing that then we're well on the way to winning a lot of games."

Lee's aim for the night was to hit the gloves of wicketkeeper Brad Haddin but he did much more than that, intimidating the Proteas with his pace and ability to move the new ball.

"It felt great from ball one," Lee said of his destructive night out.

"The pace felt really good tonight and the rhythm was always there."

"Once the ball felt like it was coming out well in that first over I really put the foot down and went for it."

Thats the link http://cricket.com.au/default.aspx?s=newsdisplay&id=36330

 

[irottev]

Well he sure looks like it at the moment. Its a bold statement though. Typical cocky aussies.

 

[James219]

Massive Statement. Interesting to see how he reacts when Mgrath goes, especially in test cricket, torn between two roles maybe, but he would probably have matured by then and play the way thats brought him his recent success.
But he's brilliant at the moment, it has to be said.
(Shane Bond would be up there...)

 

[angryangy]

I can't really see much argument against it.

 

[kodos]

ATM yes but it will be interesting whether he can maintain this sort of form when he tours SA, Pakistan and in the Ashes. Lee is now Aus strike bowler, no longer is it McGrath. McGrath has bowled pretty well so far in the summer but with no luck. Even Shaun Pollock has shown he still has the goods to keep one end down and pick up wickets.

 

[irottev]

I can't really see much argument against it.

I would probably agree that hes the best at the moment, but this wasn't too long ago. That would be my argument. I mean every bowler has his off day. But for Ponting to go and make that, mmmm.

http://nz.cricinfo.com/db/ARCHIVE/2005-06/AUS_IN_NZ/SCORECARDS/AUS_NZ_ODI2_07DEC2005.html

He has the odd off game and he has the odd totally devastating game. I guess they even each other out. A lot of his wickets, I have always rekoned, come from tight bowling from McGrath which builds pressure. Then Lee beats them for pace and usually has pretty good accuracy.

 

[James219]

ATM yes but it will be interesting whether he can maintain this sort of form when he tours SA, Pakistan and in the Ashes. Lee is now Aus strike bowler, no longer is it McGrath. McGrath has bowled pretty well so far in the summer but with no luck. Even Shaun Pollock has shown he still has the goods to keep one end down and pick up wickets.

Very true, he wont exactly have the crowd driving him on either.
Shaun Pollock's surprised me as well with the amount of wickets he's taking, in his early days he had pace and took quite a few but has often been reduced to playing the 'containing' role of late. Even in test cricket he rarely takes bags of wickets, usually just 1 or 2 an innings and sometimes more.

And with irrotev he's right about McGrath setting up Lee's success, and also helps Warne alot in test cricket (but these days he can almost do it himself), so that's why we have to wait before jumping straight into hailing Lee the best. Its the oppositie with Vettori because when Bond's gone he basically has no really good bowlers to set him up, so he's often drafted into the attack early and without any breakthroughs and hence made out to be a worse bowler than he is.
But despite all this its hard to say, Lee's putting up a pretty big argument.

 

[angryangy]

He has the odd off game and he has the odd totally devastating game. I guess they even each other out.

Judging by his average, I'd say the good games outweight the bad ones considerably.

 

[irottev]

There is one player with a better average, strike rate and economy rate

But I admit that was havn't seen enough yet to really know.

 

[James219]

Imagine how much more of a threat NZ would have been in the past if Bond played consistently. If he passes 100 ODI wickets soon he'll surely have broken some record. But true we haven't exactly seen enough to really know what could have happened.

 

[Brett_Lee]

Well apparantly lee has overtaken Mcgrath as the best one day player in the world in the ICC Rankings as pointed out in the story but they havnt been updated onthe site!

 

[irottev]

Ah, thats interesting. They were quite close.

Lee bowling at 148km/h+ wasn't made much easier by a few wicket balls kepping a little low. They were in the right place though. His performance was still pretty damn good.

 

[ZexyZahid]

This is a pretty big statement to make. Especially since McGrath is the best ODI bowler Australia has.

But cause of Lee's bowling in the last overs New Zealand and South Africa won their matches. He needs to be a better bowler then this if he wants to be the best ODI bowler.

 

[BigCrickNan]

Lee probably is at the moment, is there anyone better?

BTW: Theres a thread on almost every Australian player! What about the VB thread?

 

[irottev]

He can't bowl at the death, he has shown that. He was used right by Ponting against SA and bowled out before the final overs.