VC the slogger
PlanetCricket Forever
- Joined
- Aug 23, 2010
@Na Maloom Afraad You can make your pick as 24 hrs have passed since the last one
Draft: One-Test Wonders
- Thread starter VC the slogger
- Start date
Aislabie
Test Cricket is Best Cricket
Oh jesus, I wondered why this wasn't moving. It's because it was my pick.
Ed Joyce
Test stats: 47 runs @ 23.50 (best 43) in 1 match
First-class stats: 18,465 runs @ 47.71 (47 centuries, best 250) in 256 matches
There's not a huge amount to say really - a fantastically good left-handed batsman who didn't get to play a Test for his nation until he was nearly 40, because prior to that there were no Tests to play. Well, apart from England Tests, which he should have been picked for about 50 of but wasn't. Are you going to tell me Mark Butcher was half the player Joyce was?
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@Na Maloom Afraad
Ed JoyceTest stats: 47 runs @ 23.50 (best 43) in 1 match
First-class stats: 18,465 runs @ 47.71 (47 centuries, best 250) in 256 matches
There's not a huge amount to say really - a fantastically good left-handed batsman who didn't get to play a Test for his nation until he was nearly 40, because prior to that there were no Tests to play. Well, apart from England Tests, which he should have been picked for about 50 of but wasn't. Are you going to tell me Mark Butcher was half the player Joyce was?
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Ed Joyce 4.
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@Na Maloom Afraad
Na Maloom Afraad
Man of Tomorrow
NMA's ONE-TEST WONDERS XI
Ajay Sharma
Ajay Sharma is my first pick. A first-class average of 67.46 with 10120 runs to his name, but only one Test cap. We'll just ignore the match-fixing bit.
"Ajay Sharma's career will be seen as one of disappointment. Firstly, that a man whose first-class average was the third-highest of any player to have scored 10,000 runs only played one Test; secondly, that his career ended when he was implicated in the match-fixing scandal which rocked world cricket, receiving a life ban."
You're next @VC the slogger, and it's a double-pick!
Ajay SharmaAjay Sharma is my first pick. A first-class average of 67.46 with 10120 runs to his name, but only one Test cap. We'll just ignore the match-fixing bit.
"Ajay Sharma's career will be seen as one of disappointment. Firstly, that a man whose first-class average was the third-highest of any player to have scored 10,000 runs only played one Test; secondly, that his career ended when he was implicated in the match-fixing scandal which rocked world cricket, receiving a life ban."
You're next @VC the slogger, and it's a double-pick!
VC the slogger
PlanetCricket Forever
- Joined
- Aug 23, 2010
NMA's ONE-TEST WONDERS XI
Ajay Sharma is my first pick. A first-class average of 67.46 with 10120 runs to his name, but only one Test cap. We'll just ignore the match-fixing bit.
"Ajay Sharma's career will be seen as one of disappointment. Firstly, that a man whose first-class average was the third-highest of any player to have scored 10,000 runs only played one Test; secondly, that his career ended when he was implicated in the match-fixing scandal which rocked world cricket, receiving a life ban."
You're next @VC the slogger, and it's a double-pick!
Aw man, he was the player I was targeting.. Great pick.
He's becoming a really targeted entity these days in the drafts.NMA's ONE-TEST WONDERS XI
Ajay Sharma is my first pick. A first-class average of 67.46 with 10120 runs to his name, but only one Test cap. We'll just ignore the match-fixing bit.
"Ajay Sharma's career will be seen as one of disappointment. Firstly, that a man whose first-class average was the third-highest of any player to have scored 10,000 runs only played one Test; secondly, that his career ended when he was implicated in the match-fixing scandal which rocked world cricket, receiving a life ban."
You're next @VC the slogger, and it's a double-pick!
VC the slogger
PlanetCricket Forever
- Joined
- Aug 23, 2010
For my first player, I shall go with...
As a general rule, good opening batsmen from the Caribbean have nearly always been strokemakers - starting from Clifford Roach in their very first Test match in 1928 until the ‘30s, Jeff Stollmeyer in the ‘40s and early ‘50s, Conrad Hunte from the late ‘50s to ‘60s, Roy Fredericks from the early to mid ‘70s and of course the greatest of them all in Gordon Greenidge and Desmond Haynes from their glory days starting from the mid ‘70s to early ‘90s. Which is what makes my player Leslie Wight something of a freak in this regard, for he was a good opening batsman from the Caribbean who preferred to grind bowling attacks to dust rather than dominate them.
Wight was a solid right-handed opener born into a Guyanese cricketing family that produced another Test player in his uncle Vibart, who represented the West Indies in 2 Test matches in their first ever Test series against England in 1928; his father and three brothers all played first-class cricket, his younger brother Peter forging a very successful county career with Somerset. But none of them arguably had the talent to match that of Leslie, whose powers of concentration and ability to occupy the crease were second to none in the family. He simply hated to get out.
This trait held him in good stead during his only too brief first-class career which began in 1949/50 and lasted only three seasons until 1952/53, during which time he played 12 matches and amassed a frankly ridiculous 1260 runs at an average of 66.31 with 4 hundreds and 6 fifties to his name. His greatest performance with the bat came in 1951/52, when he batted for 708 minutes to score an unbeaten 262 - his highest first-class score in a sizeable 1st wicket partnership of 390 with Glendon Gibbs, which remained a record in West Indies cricket for another 50 years until a young Chris Gayle and Leon Garrick went one better with an unbroken 425-run stand in 2000/01.
At a time when West Indies needed to find another solid opening partner to complement the prolific Jeff Stollmeyer following Allan Rae’s retirement in early 1953, there couldn’t have been a more ideal replacement than Wight. He was quite rightly given a Test call-up for the series against the touring Indians and picked to make his debut in front of his home crowd in Georgetown, Guyana. It had all the makings of a dream debut, but for skipper Stollmeyer’s rather bizarre decision to send him as low as No 6 and instead open with the bespectacled Bruce Pairaudeau, a man whose only Test century came incidentally from No 6 where Wight was slotted and who would go on to average a pathetic 16.00 as opener. Wight would grind out a painfully slow 21 in over two hours from his unfamiliar batting position, and then be unjustly cast aside immediately from the West Indies Test lineup like a rag doll.
This awful treatment of his clearly played a role in his very early retirement from the sport aged only 23; he played no professional cricket after 1952/53, not even for his home team Guyana in the West Indies domestic first-class competition and instead emigrated to Canada where he would eventually settle down with a family. He continued to play low level cricket in Canada, where he is said to have amassed countless centuries for various teams he played for. The doggedness that defined his cricket never left him; he was diagnosed with spinal cancer in 1984 but survived another 20 years and kept playing cricket as a pastime only three years leading to his death in 2004. Needless to say, West Indies clearly missed a trick by not playing him as an opener.
For my second pick..
Perhaps the image that summed up West Indies’ miserable 2019 World Cup campaign best was that of Andre Russell down on his knees as Bangladesh led by Shakib Al Hasan and Liton Das gunned down a sizeable target of 322 in fewer than 42 overs to effectively knock them out of the competition. Clearly unfit leading into the tournament, he lasted just 4 matches totalling a mere 36 runs and finding himself unable to complete or even come close to completing his 10-over quota in any of the matches that he played. He required surgery after the tournament, which one can safely assume was probably the last we’ve ever seen of the world’s foremost T20 superstar in any of the game’s longer formats. Why then have I gone for such player when there’s so many other one-Test wonders that can play the all-rounders role without breaking down quite as often?
The answer is because there was a time when Dre Russ could not only get through longer format matches, but was among the most promising players in the West Indies domestic first-class circuit - a bowler capable of rattling batting lineups with his 145-150 kph thunderbolts, and a hard hitting lower-order batsman who could smash centuries off 60-odd balls or so, that too in the 4-day format! He was for a while both Brett Lee and Shahid Afridi (another not too shabby Test cricketer) rolled into one. Some of his more impressive performances included a five-fer against a strong India A side containing future Test regulars Cheteshwar Pujara, Ajinkya Rahane, Shikhar Dhawan and Wriddhiman Saha on a dead pitch in 2010, a quickfire 128 off 140 balls to go with 5 wickets against Bangladesh A in 2011, and a career best 9-wicket match haul against the same opponents in the very next match.
His performances with bat and ball saw him touted as West Indies’ hottest all-round prospect in over a decade, and he was called up to the Test side in late 2010 to tour Sri Lanka where he made his debut in a match where Chris Gayle would go on to score his second Test triple century. He claimed Tillakaratne Dilshan for nought as his maiden Test wicket, but endured a very difficult match claiming just 1 wicket across 23 overs and scoring just 2 with the bat. His sheer talent nevertheless suggested a player capable of bouncing back from a rather disappointing debut.
But as he would go on to make a name for himself around the world across various T20 leagues for his big hitting and fiery bowling, his ambition to play Test cricket again seemed to have all but disappeared. From a financial perspective, it was quite a sensible thing to do for an injury-prone player who could make millions by bowling 4 overs per match and slogging sixes after sixes rather than grinding it out for 4 days and in the process risking an earlier finish to his career. Overall, he played just 17 first-class matches scoring 609 runs at 26.47 with 2 centuries, and claimed 54 wickets at an impressive average of 20.44 with 3 five-fers, with a wicket every 38.5 balls. Nevertheless, with stats such as his in the first-class format, that too acquired during what one can call the rookie phase of his career, one can only imagine how much he could have achieved over time had he the commitment and desire.
VC’s XI
1)
2) Leslie Wight
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4)
5)
6)
7) Andre Russell
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9)
10)
11)
@Na Maloom Afraad
As a general rule, good opening batsmen from the Caribbean have nearly always been strokemakers - starting from Clifford Roach in their very first Test match in 1928 until the ‘30s, Jeff Stollmeyer in the ‘40s and early ‘50s, Conrad Hunte from the late ‘50s to ‘60s, Roy Fredericks from the early to mid ‘70s and of course the greatest of them all in Gordon Greenidge and Desmond Haynes from their glory days starting from the mid ‘70s to early ‘90s. Which is what makes my player Leslie Wight something of a freak in this regard, for he was a good opening batsman from the Caribbean who preferred to grind bowling attacks to dust rather than dominate them.
Wight was a solid right-handed opener born into a Guyanese cricketing family that produced another Test player in his uncle Vibart, who represented the West Indies in 2 Test matches in their first ever Test series against England in 1928; his father and three brothers all played first-class cricket, his younger brother Peter forging a very successful county career with Somerset. But none of them arguably had the talent to match that of Leslie, whose powers of concentration and ability to occupy the crease were second to none in the family. He simply hated to get out.
This trait held him in good stead during his only too brief first-class career which began in 1949/50 and lasted only three seasons until 1952/53, during which time he played 12 matches and amassed a frankly ridiculous 1260 runs at an average of 66.31 with 4 hundreds and 6 fifties to his name. His greatest performance with the bat came in 1951/52, when he batted for 708 minutes to score an unbeaten 262 - his highest first-class score in a sizeable 1st wicket partnership of 390 with Glendon Gibbs, which remained a record in West Indies cricket for another 50 years until a young Chris Gayle and Leon Garrick went one better with an unbroken 425-run stand in 2000/01.
At a time when West Indies needed to find another solid opening partner to complement the prolific Jeff Stollmeyer following Allan Rae’s retirement in early 1953, there couldn’t have been a more ideal replacement than Wight. He was quite rightly given a Test call-up for the series against the touring Indians and picked to make his debut in front of his home crowd in Georgetown, Guyana. It had all the makings of a dream debut, but for skipper Stollmeyer’s rather bizarre decision to send him as low as No 6 and instead open with the bespectacled Bruce Pairaudeau, a man whose only Test century came incidentally from No 6 where Wight was slotted and who would go on to average a pathetic 16.00 as opener. Wight would grind out a painfully slow 21 in over two hours from his unfamiliar batting position, and then be unjustly cast aside immediately from the West Indies Test lineup like a rag doll.
This awful treatment of his clearly played a role in his very early retirement from the sport aged only 23; he played no professional cricket after 1952/53, not even for his home team Guyana in the West Indies domestic first-class competition and instead emigrated to Canada where he would eventually settle down with a family. He continued to play low level cricket in Canada, where he is said to have amassed countless centuries for various teams he played for. The doggedness that defined his cricket never left him; he was diagnosed with spinal cancer in 1984 but survived another 20 years and kept playing cricket as a pastime only three years leading to his death in 2004. Needless to say, West Indies clearly missed a trick by not playing him as an opener.
For my second pick..
Perhaps the image that summed up West Indies’ miserable 2019 World Cup campaign best was that of Andre Russell down on his knees as Bangladesh led by Shakib Al Hasan and Liton Das gunned down a sizeable target of 322 in fewer than 42 overs to effectively knock them out of the competition. Clearly unfit leading into the tournament, he lasted just 4 matches totalling a mere 36 runs and finding himself unable to complete or even come close to completing his 10-over quota in any of the matches that he played. He required surgery after the tournament, which one can safely assume was probably the last we’ve ever seen of the world’s foremost T20 superstar in any of the game’s longer formats. Why then have I gone for such player when there’s so many other one-Test wonders that can play the all-rounders role without breaking down quite as often?
The answer is because there was a time when Dre Russ could not only get through longer format matches, but was among the most promising players in the West Indies domestic first-class circuit - a bowler capable of rattling batting lineups with his 145-150 kph thunderbolts, and a hard hitting lower-order batsman who could smash centuries off 60-odd balls or so, that too in the 4-day format! He was for a while both Brett Lee and Shahid Afridi (another not too shabby Test cricketer) rolled into one. Some of his more impressive performances included a five-fer against a strong India A side containing future Test regulars Cheteshwar Pujara, Ajinkya Rahane, Shikhar Dhawan and Wriddhiman Saha on a dead pitch in 2010, a quickfire 128 off 140 balls to go with 5 wickets against Bangladesh A in 2011, and a career best 9-wicket match haul against the same opponents in the very next match.
His performances with bat and ball saw him touted as West Indies’ hottest all-round prospect in over a decade, and he was called up to the Test side in late 2010 to tour Sri Lanka where he made his debut in a match where Chris Gayle would go on to score his second Test triple century. He claimed Tillakaratne Dilshan for nought as his maiden Test wicket, but endured a very difficult match claiming just 1 wicket across 23 overs and scoring just 2 with the bat. His sheer talent nevertheless suggested a player capable of bouncing back from a rather disappointing debut.
But as he would go on to make a name for himself around the world across various T20 leagues for his big hitting and fiery bowling, his ambition to play Test cricket again seemed to have all but disappeared. From a financial perspective, it was quite a sensible thing to do for an injury-prone player who could make millions by bowling 4 overs per match and slogging sixes after sixes rather than grinding it out for 4 days and in the process risking an earlier finish to his career. Overall, he played just 17 first-class matches scoring 609 runs at 26.47 with 2 centuries, and claimed 54 wickets at an impressive average of 20.44 with 3 five-fers, with a wicket every 38.5 balls. Nevertheless, with stats such as his in the first-class format, that too acquired during what one can call the rookie phase of his career, one can only imagine how much he could have achieved over time had he the commitment and desire.
VC’s XI
1)
2)
Leslie Wight3)
4)
5)
6)
7)
Andre Russell8)
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11)
@Na Maloom Afraad
Bevab
Staff Member
His numbers (besides some other domestic giants with monster numbers) are the main reason why I doubt the quality of Ranji Trophy in the olden days (a problem that might very well resurface given the newer teams added in recent years).
Na Maloom Afraad
Man of Tomorrow
NMA's ONE-TEST WONDERS XI
Ajay Sharma
Hardus Viljoen
Hardus Viljoen is the first bowler I pick. Playing his only Test in January of 2016 (in which, by no means was he a wonder), he is just eligible for selection.
"Built like a fast bowler - tall, broad-shouldered and strong - Hardus Viljoen became one of those that got away from a country with an embarrassment of resources in his department. In December 2016, Viljoen signed a three-year Kolpak deal with Derbyshire to put on hold a possible international career. At the time, Viljoen had played just one Test but had established himself as the leader of the Lions' pack and was a regular in South African A sides."
"His ability to bowl quickly and unleash a mean bouncer are Viljoen's greatest assets and they were evident from the early days of his career. He started at Eastern, in Benoni, where he rose to prominence in the 2010-11 season. He finished second on the provincial three-day bowling charts. He was signed by the Lions and quickly found a home at the Wanderers, whose fast, bouncy track suited his style."
"Control was occasionally a concern but Viljoen's strike rate remained impressive as his career developed. He was second on the first-class wicket-takers' list in the 2014-15 (39 wickets at 20.43) and considered moving to New Zealand at the end of that season to further his career but stayed to try and challenge for a spot in the South African team. He made a strong case when he topped the bowling charts in 2015-16 with 47 wickets at 23.02 and in a summer during which the South African attack was plagued with injuries, he was the obvious choice to step up."
"Viljoen made his Test debut on his home ground, the Wanderers, for the third Test between South Africa and England. He hit the first ball he faced for four and then took a wicket with the first ball he bowled - that of England captain Alaistair Cook - but that was as good as it got. Viljoen ended with 1 for 94, South Africa lost the match and the series and he was not retained for the final match."
"He played four county championship matches for Kent and traveled with the South African A side to Zimbabwe and Australia in winter 2016 and enjoyed a strong start to the 2016-17 season but midway through it, announced his decision to go Kolpak. Derbyshire valued his services, benefiting from occasional spells of considerable hostility."
You're next @Aislabie
Ajay Sharma Hardus ViljoenHardus Viljoen is the first bowler I pick. Playing his only Test in January of 2016 (in which, by no means was he a wonder), he is just eligible for selection.
"Built like a fast bowler - tall, broad-shouldered and strong - Hardus Viljoen became one of those that got away from a country with an embarrassment of resources in his department. In December 2016, Viljoen signed a three-year Kolpak deal with Derbyshire to put on hold a possible international career. At the time, Viljoen had played just one Test but had established himself as the leader of the Lions' pack and was a regular in South African A sides."
"His ability to bowl quickly and unleash a mean bouncer are Viljoen's greatest assets and they were evident from the early days of his career. He started at Eastern, in Benoni, where he rose to prominence in the 2010-11 season. He finished second on the provincial three-day bowling charts. He was signed by the Lions and quickly found a home at the Wanderers, whose fast, bouncy track suited his style."
"Control was occasionally a concern but Viljoen's strike rate remained impressive as his career developed. He was second on the first-class wicket-takers' list in the 2014-15 (39 wickets at 20.43) and considered moving to New Zealand at the end of that season to further his career but stayed to try and challenge for a spot in the South African team. He made a strong case when he topped the bowling charts in 2015-16 with 47 wickets at 23.02 and in a summer during which the South African attack was plagued with injuries, he was the obvious choice to step up."
"Viljoen made his Test debut on his home ground, the Wanderers, for the third Test between South Africa and England. He hit the first ball he faced for four and then took a wicket with the first ball he bowled - that of England captain Alaistair Cook - but that was as good as it got. Viljoen ended with 1 for 94, South Africa lost the match and the series and he was not retained for the final match."
"He played four county championship matches for Kent and traveled with the South African A side to Zimbabwe and Australia in winter 2016 and enjoyed a strong start to the 2016-17 season but midway through it, announced his decision to go Kolpak. Derbyshire valued his services, benefiting from occasional spells of considerable hostility."
You're next @Aislabie
Aislabie
Test Cricket is Best Cricket
Andre AdamsTest stats: 18 runs @ 9.00 (best 11) and 6 wickets @ 17.50 (best 3/44) in 1 match
First-class stats: 4,540 runs @ 21.31 (3 centuries, best 124) and 692 wickets @ 23.95 (32 5WI, best 7/32) in 173 matches
Andre Adams' career always baffled me because he always got pigeonholed as a white-ball specialist. Yes, he could hit the ball a long way with bat in hand and did occasionally win one-day games with bat in hand, but he won a great deal more red-ball games with ball in hand. Arguably lacking a yard of pace, he made up for it in spades with control and subtle movement. Very Philander-esque.
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Ed Joyce4.
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Andre Adams9.
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@ahmedleo414
ahmedleo414
The Butcher
My pick goes to Sir Charles Aubrey Smith.
His stats:
Test:
Match: 1
Runs: 61
Wickets: 7
BBI: 5/19
BBM: 7/61
Ave: 8.71
5w: 1
10w: 0
First Class:
Match: 143
Runs: 7730
Wickets: 346
BBI: 7/16
BBM: ?
Ave: 22.58
5w: 19
10w: 1
A little bio from wiki
"As a cricketer, Smith was primarily a right arm fast bowler, though he was also a useful right-hand lower-order batsman and a good slip fielder. His oddly curved bowling run-up, which started from deep mid-off, earned him the nickname "Round the Corner Smith". When he bowled round the wicket his approach was concealed from the batsman by the umpire until he emerged, leading W. G. Grace to comment "it is rather startling when he suddenly appears at the bowling crease.""
My Team so far:
1. Rodney Redmond
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8. Charles Aubrey Smith
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@El Loco you have the next pick
His stats:
Test:
Match: 1
Runs: 61
Wickets: 7
BBI: 5/19
BBM: 7/61
Ave: 8.71
5w: 1
10w: 0
First Class:
Match: 143
Runs: 7730
Wickets: 346
BBI: 7/16
BBM: ?
Ave: 22.58
5w: 19
10w: 1
A little bio from wiki
"As a cricketer, Smith was primarily a right arm fast bowler, though he was also a useful right-hand lower-order batsman and a good slip fielder. His oddly curved bowling run-up, which started from deep mid-off, earned him the nickname "Round the Corner Smith". When he bowled round the wicket his approach was concealed from the batsman by the umpire until he emerged, leading W. G. Grace to comment "it is rather startling when he suddenly appears at the bowling crease.""
My Team so far:
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Rodney Redmond2.
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5.
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Charles Aubrey Smith9.
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11.
@El Loco you have the next pick
El Loco
PCPF Mod Chief Superintendent
- Joined
- Sep 3, 2011
Andy Ganteaume will be next for me. Apart from Rodney Redmond he is the only other One Test Wonder to score a century on debut and his average of 112 eclipses Bradman's 
@CerealKiller
@CerealKiller
CerealKiller
Staff Member
"Gobo Ashley, a slow-medium left-armer, played once for South Africa in the second-ever Test against England at Cape Town in 1888-89. Although South Africa lost by an innings, Ashley took 7 for 95 in England's only innings. The match was also his first-class debut." ESPNCricinfo profile
He played three more FC matches for Western Province, and never played top level cricket again
CerealKiller's XI
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5. Stuart Law
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11. Gobo Ashley
@Yash.
He played three more FC matches for Western Province, and never played top level cricket again
CerealKiller's XI
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Stuart Law 6.
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Gobo Ashley @Yash.
Master Bates
School Cricketer
Strange......
Aislabie
Test Cricket is Best Cricket
South African cricket at the time was sporadic, especially with the Boer Wars going on. Plus these games weren't recognised as Tests until after most of the players had died
