Top 100 in ODI history - 2: Tendulkar, 1: Richards

[Fenil]

Harbhajan, once who was expected to fill in the big boots of Anil Kumble as India's main spinner in all formats has been very ineffective since he has turned to defensive bowling of firing the ball into the batsmen. He should start giving the ball some air, create a loop and deceive the batsmen like he used to few years back. Once my favorite bowler, doesn't stand anywhere near to the main spinner's spot in the team. That said, I find Ashwin too a pretty 'okayish' bowler. He can be good at times in shorter formats but tests is not his cup of tea. Pragyan Ojha is a far better bowler for test matches.

 

[sifter132]

Harbhajan's hattrick against Australia should surely be his best? Though, I personally feel he's useless now. Has developed a huge ego/attitude. And, has gone from being a very good spinner to an idiot on the field.

Hat trick was in Test cricket was it not??

As for ego/attitude, I'm not sure... I didn't watch ALL the IPL, nor watch every ball of Indian cricket, but it seems like he's improved since "monkey-gate" and the slapping of Sreesanth. Around that time he seemed a total tool.

Aalay is right too - he's overly focused on run stopping, but in reality he is pretty good at it. Interestingly, I mentioned his record under Ganguly vs Dhoni. In Test cricket the difference is far more pronounced, but looking at STRIKE RATE alone in ODIs: it was 45.0 under Ganguly, 46.0 under Dhoni. From that, Harbhajan either a) was never as good as we thought, or b) is not as bad as we think

 

[sami ullah khan]

Harbhajan is still pretty young but his bowling seems so ineffective. I don't know if he will ever be able to crawl back up to the top from lows he finds himself in. Nice to see the great Ranatunga in the list. He truly was a marvelous leaders. Players like Murali owe a lot of their success to him.

 

[Gaurav_7]

Hat trick was in Test cricket was it not??

Oops, my mistake.

As for ego/attitude, I'm not sure... I didn't watch ALL the IPL, nor watch every ball of Indian cricket, but it seems like he's improved since "monkey-gate" and the slapping of Sreesanth. Around that time he seemed a total tool.

He's the same. But, this year's IPL he seemed a bit improved when it came to on field behavior, only just though.

 

[sifter132]

#75 - Daniel Vettori

Role: LH orthodox spinner. Useful LH lower order batsman, starting down at #10, but moving up to #8 or #9 mostly.

Debut: vs Sri Lanka, Christchurch, 1997.
Matches: 272
Runs: 2105
Avg: 17.39
S/R: 81.93
Wkts: 282
Avg: 31.48
Econ: 4.12

Legacy: Is he the king of consistency? Maybe, as Vettori always seems to be on the mark. He's got a great temperament too Vettori, unflappable. Some might even say robotic given his monotonous line and length - and his rarely interesting post match interviews :P

Statswise, only two spinners have a lower economy than Vettori since the turn of the century: Murali and Ray Price. Vettori has very similar figures to Harbhajan Singh actually. They have almost exactly the same strike rate, but Vettori's RPO is about 0.2 lower, a lot of which could be put down to Harbhajan playing so often on the high scoring Indian pitches.

Hasn't been quite as succesful an ODI batsman as Tests, but he has played quite a few useful hands down at #8. And of course he's a smart fella in the field, the obvious successor to Stephen Fleming after he stood down after the 2007 World Cup.

Three of the best (matches in chronological order):
1) 5/30 (9.2) vs West Indies, Lord's, 2004. Final of the NatWest triangular and Vettori lead the way as NZ defended 266. Lara, Bravo, Chanderpaul, Ricardo Powell and Dwayne Smith were his wickets - and he got 2 run outs as well!
2) 4/33 (10) vs Australia, Docklands, 2005. Playing for the World XI, Vettori was a class above his more fancied teammates. Got Symonds, Clarke, Hussey and Watson - all 4 on this list! Didn't end well though as the World XI got no where near the 255 target.
3) 70 (49) & 2/43 (10) vs Australia, Auckland, 2010. Vettori was his usual tidy self with the ball as Australia posted 273 (Haddin & Ponting the wickets). Then came in with NZ in all sorts at 6/131, needed just over 7 an over. Vettori proceeded to score so quickly, despite quickly running out of partners, that NZ almost won the match. Vettori was eventually bowled with the equation reading 13 off 11 and the Australians well and truly rattled.

Highlights:

 

[sifter132]

#74 - Mohammad Yousuf

Role: RH middle order bat, most often at #4 or #5, ocasionally #3.

Debut: vs Zimbabwe, Harare, 1998.
Matches: 288
Runs: 9720
Avg: 41.71
S/R: 75.10

Legacy: Mohammad Yousuf made batting look extremely easy at times, batting with grace and playing those silky looking shots of his. I loved the way he wasn't afraid to take on the spinners. I remember a few bouts with Shane Warne that were always interesting.

Has a reputation for being a home pitch bully, and while his average in Pakistan is higher than his career (51 vs 42), his overall average in Asia is 42 as well. So Yousuf has managed to succeed in a variety of ODI conditions.

Three of the best (matches in chronological order):
1) 100* (112) vs India, Dhaka, 2000. Showed tremendous pacing, his first 50 coming in 92 balls as Pakistan had a mini collapse, losing 4 wickets within 30 runs. Then with the innings secured, Yousuf's second 50 came in just 20 balls.
2) 129 (131) vs Sri Lanka, Sharjah, 2002. Final of the Sharjah triangular and Yousuf again had to initially steady the innings before putting on a strokeplaying clinic. Lovely innings. Ended up being a HUGE win for Pakistan: they made 295 and bowled SL out for only 78!
3) 81* (114) vs India, Birmingham, 2004. Big Champions Trophy game vs India. India only made 200, but Pakistan made heavy work of the chase, 3/27 when Yousuf walked in and losing 4 more wickets on the way to the score. Yousuf was cool headed and anchored the chase, Pakistan home with 4 balls to spare.

Highlights:

#73 - Makhaya Ntini

Role: RH fast-medium bowler, usually took the new ball. Couldn't really bat, most innings at #11.

Debut: vs New Zealand, Perth, 1998.
Matches: 173
Wkts: 266
Avg: 24.65
Econ: 4.53

Legacy: The relentless Makhaya Ntini is #73. One of world cricket's fittest men, legend says that he used to go for a 10km run after a day's Test cricket. Fitness is not quite so crucial for ODIs, but it helped Ntini maintain his spells and maintain his spot in the team with an almost injury free career.

Busy looking action (looks a lot like Malcolm Marshall) and bowled from wide on the crease which meant he struggled to gain LBWs. One of those skiddy bowlers who made it seem like the ball went faster AFTER it pitched.

Has a great record, including Averaging under 30 vs ALL the major teams (Australia highest at 29.76).

Three of the best (matches in chronological order):
1) 5/31 (10) vs New Zealand, Melbourne, 2002. 1st final of the triangular series and Ntini had the ball talking, nipping out Vincent and Astle early before returning to finish off the Kiwi innings at 190. Easy win for SA.
2) 6/22 (9.3) vs Australia, Cape Town, 2006. South Africa HAMMERS Australia, making 289 and then Australia are out for 93 in return, and Ntini was dynamite. Gilchrist, Jaques, Martyn, Clarke, Watson and finally Bracken were his victims.
3) 5/21 (6) vs Pakistan, Mohali, 2006. Champions Trophy and another team skittled thanks to Ntini. Pakistan only mustered 89 as Ntini ripped through them, taking 5 of the first 6 as Pakistan were 6/27 at one stage.

Highlights: Not a lot of youtube love for Makhaya at present, so I'm digging into Tests and IPL...

 

[sifter132]

#72 - Hansie Cronje

Role: RH Batting all-rounder. Batted all round the middle order from #3-#6 in varying stints. Bowled RH medium pace.

Debut: vs Australia, Sydney, 1992.
Matches: 188
Runs: 5565
Avg: 38.64
S/R: 76.47
Wkts: 114
Avg: 34.78
Econ: 4.44

Legacy: Of course Hansie Cronje really has one main legacy and it's not a pretty one: Matchfixing. One positive thing to write about Cronje however was his approach to racism, the thing that kept South Africa out of world cricket for so long. He opposed Ali Bacher's quota idea, and did lots of behind the scenes work promoting cricket in black townships around the country.

But before we all learned about his matchfixing, Cronje was an excellent ODI cricketer. He only made 2 100s, but he was a consistent contributor, an excellent partnership player that knitted the SA middle order together. Saved his best for Australia, averaging 47 against them over his career and in particular playing Shane Warne very well. Cronje's medium pacers were quite useful, possibly underused because South Africa had so many all-rounders in the 90s.

As captain he holds the 3rd best winning percentage of all time (behind Clive Lloyd and Ricky Ponting). Cronje's SA team were always formidable, they even won a trophy!! The ICC Knockout in 1998 (now the Champions Trophy).

Three of the best (matches in chronological order):
1) 12(5) & 5/32 (10) vs India, Cape Town, 1992. India were 0/92 when Cronje came on but finished up all out for 184, getting both openers, then Manjrekar, Amre and Prabhakar. Then in the chase, Wessels and Peter Kirsten had chewed up a lot of balls. When Cronje strode out SA still needed 17 off 14 and Cronje's little cameo was needed to get SA home with 3 balls left.
2) 81 (70) & 0/30 (8) vs Pakistan, East London, 1993. Bowled tidily and then batted brilliantly to almost get SA home in a rain reduced match. They needed 172 in 31 overs and looked good thanks to Cronje's smart batting, then Wasim Akram sparked a huge collapse and Cronje rapidly ran out of partners and was eventually run out 11 runs short of the target in the 2nd last over.
3) 112 (120) vs Australia, Johannesburg, 1994. Took on a strong quartet of McDermott, Reiffel, McGrath and Warne and stroked his first ODI century. SA won after a brilliant bit of death bowling by Fanie De Villiers.

Highlights: Geez, not much Hansie on youtube. I'm stuck finding bits of him from match highlights. Vid 1 isn't great quality, but at 4:20-6:10 you can see Hansie mow across the line a few times. Vid 2, Cronje made 91 in this match, you can see him from 4:30 onwards.

#71 - Darren Gough

Role: RH Fast medium bowler, usually took new ball. Batted mostly at #9 or #10.

Debut: vs New Zealand, Birmingham, 1994
Matches: 159
Runs: 609
Avg: 12.42
S/R: 64.30
Wkts: 235
Avg: 26.42
Econ: 4.39

Legacy: Gough remains England's leading wicket taker in ODI cricket and it's only fair because Gough was a very attacking bowler back in a time when England were trotting out plenty of medium pacers in ODI cricket. Gough was particularly good at the death, bowled great yorkers (see vids) and learned to reverse swing the ball.

Was at his best on pitches with a bit of bounce and seam, and it's no surprise that his record in Asia and WI is fairly weak (but in Gough's defense - he never went there much). It also emphasises how brilliant Gough could be eg. his record in South Africa (18 ODIs: 36 wkts @ 18) and in Australia (17 ODIs: 27 wkts @ 24) showing how he could regularly trouble even the strongest teams.

Three of the best (matches in chronological order):
1) 5/44 (10) vs Australia, Lord's, 1997. Gough took the top 4 plus Gillespie, but despite his efforts, Australia still made 269. England still made it home though, thanks to Stewart, Crawley and a quick 50 by Ben Hollioake.
2) 4/35 (10) vs South Africa, Manchester, 1998. Gough got Kirsten and Kallis at the start, Boucher and Symcox at the end. SA made 226 and England fell short.
3) 2/9 (7) vs South Africa, Lord's, 2003. Final of the NatWest series and it saw a brilliant spell from Gough with the new ball. 3 of the 9 runs were no balls! SA were bowled out for 107 and England romped home.

Highlights: Great inswinging yorker to Pollock in first vid, then his Test hattrick in the 2nd, 2 great yorkers to finish it off.

 

[sami ullah khan]

Gough was fun to watch. He could bowl a mean yorker and was always up there in terms of pace. He was good learner too and was perhaps the first English bowler to dig into the art of Reverse Swing.

 

[Owzat]

Sorry but Cronje should be banned from any "greatest" anything to do with cricket, unless you are doing greatest disgraces.

I can't remember who "missed out" but Hick, Fairbrother, even Owais Shah deserve a place ahead of match fixers.

SHAME on you

 

[sami ullah khan]

^ I second that. Cronje brought disgrace and shame to our most beloved sport. Anyone who is proved be involved in match/spot fixing should not be mentioned alongside the greats of the game.

 

[sifter132]

Sorry but Cronje should be banned from any "greatest" anything to do with cricket, unless you are doing greatest disgraces.

I can't remember who "missed out" but Hick, Fairbrother, even Owais Shah deserve a place ahead of match fixers.

SHAME on you

Your right to an opinion, and I certainly have little respect for Cronje. But the line has to be drawn somewhere. My line is drawn under what's in the record book, and in the record book Cronje was an excellent player.

I say this every time, but if you start moralising these sorts of things then the line gets harder to draw...I've got Shane Warne on this list - banned for drug use. Ditto for Shoaib Akhtar. Did they not also disgrace cricket? I've got Herschelle Gibbs on the list too - suspended for match fixing, took money even though he didn't actually throw his wicket away. Is he a disgrace to the game? I've got Saleem Malik and Mohammad Azharuddin too. More involved than Gibbs, but perhaps less than Cronje. Then we can go into grey areas: bowling actions and throwing...guys who have admitted ball tampering...guys who were just arseholes in general and got reported multiple times by match referees. Where is the line? And who decides?

Maybe we can make the 100 nice guys of cricket list next

Fairbrother made it BTW

 

[sifter132]

#70 - Andy Flower

Role: Wicketkeeper, and top order LH batsman. Batted most at #4, but spent time all through the order, from #1-#5.

Debut: vs Sri Lanka, New Plymouth, 1992.
Matches: 213
Runs: 6786
Avg: 35.34
S/R: 74.59
Catches: 141
Stumpings: 32

Legacy: Flower was so often the only shining light in the Zimbabwe batting lineup. His record is decent enough by itself without factoring in the value of his wicket-keeping as well. Flower taking the gloves allowed Zimbabwe more options when picking their XI. Although taking the gloves didn't really help Flower's batting (avg of 34.58 with gloves vs 40.91 without). Captaincy didn't help his batting either (avg of 25.14 as captain vs 38.74 without).

Certainly wasn't the first to play the reverse sweep, but was one of the first to regularly use it against the spinners helping him enhance a reputation of being very good against spin.

Will also be remembered for the protests he made with Henry Olonga at the 2003 World Cup. They both wore black armbands during the World Cup and released a statement disapproving of the political situation in Zimbabwe.

Three of the best (matches in chronological order):
1) 99* (111) vs Australia, Harare, 1999. The first of 3 examples of Flower doing it all alone. Versus McGrath and Warne, Flower came in at 2/28 and managed to get Zimbabwe to 9/200 despite 21 being the next highest score. Flower was only on 84 at beginning of last over, hence the 99*. Australia won easily but Flower was deemed Man of the Match.
2) 142* (128) vs England, Harare, 2001. Came in at 2/7 and watched Zimbabwe fall to 6/127 before Heath Streak finally stayed with the magnificent Flower to get Zimbabwe to 261 (which England ran down with 4 wkts in hand).
3) 145* (164) vs India, Colombo, 2002. Zimbabwe needed 289 to win and again Flower was the only man to fire (33 from Grant Flower the next best). Flower was out in the 2nd last over as Zimbabwe ultimately lost by 14 runs.

Highlights: 2nd vid is for South Australia for those confused...

#69 - Ewen Chatfield

Role: RH medium-fast bowler, either new ball or change bowler. Almost always a #11 batsman.

Debut: vs West Indies, Nottingham, 1979.
Matches: 114
Wkts: 140
Avg: 25.84
Econ: 3.57

Legacy: Not much above medium pace but Chatfield was very accurate and gained enough movement with the ball to keep batsmen on edge. Was an old school line and length-er, meaning he wasn't as useful at the death and didn't have the extra varations that come with the territory today.

Formed a fine partnership with Sir Richard Hadlee, Chatfield benefiting from batsmen switching off a little against him, Hadlee benefiting from Chatfield's accuracy at the other end.

Chatfield is also famous for almost dying on the cricket field. He had to be resuscitated during his debut Test match against England after copping a bouncer in the head. Chatfield wasn't wearing a helmet and was knocked unconscious, swallowing his tongue. It had little effect on his career, he played on for a long time after that.

Three of the best (matches in chronological order):
1) 5/34 (10) vs Australia, Adelaide, 1980. 5th bowler used and found immediate success: Dyson, Wood, G.Chappell, Border and Graf were his 5 wickets and took Australia from 1/92 to 6/150. Australia eventually struggled to 217, NZ running it down in the last over.
2) 3/20 (10) vs Pakistan, Auckland, 1985. Second innings was never played due to rain but Chatfield had limited Pakistan to 189, grabbing Mudassar Nazar, Zaheer Abbas and Saleem Malik.
3) 3/14 (9) vs India, Sharjah, 1986. NZ only made 132, but Chatfield suddenly made the game VERY interesting by getting India 3/19 by removing Gavaskar, Srikkanth and Azharuddin. India eventually scraped home with 3 wkts in hand.

Highlights: The innings where Chatfield took 5. Around 4:30 to 5:30 in is where he takes 3 of the wickets.

[youtube][/youtube]

 

[Aislabie]

Great list and I'm enjoying your write-ups, but I think one guy who you really missed out was Dennis Amiss. He really dominated the early days of one day cricket.

 

[Fenil]

Great list and I'm enjoying your write-ups, but I think one guy who you really missed out was Dennis Amiss. He really dominated the early days of one day cricket.

I don't think one can include him in the list. He had an experience of playing mere 18 ODIs. Glenn Turner seems to me, by far, the more deserving to be in the list than Amiss but then I think Turner might well miss out from the list as well.

 

[sifter132]

^Yes it's a simple matter of experience and overall influence really as to why they would miss out. Hard on them I guess, as it's not Amiss or Turner's fault they played so little - OK maybe Turner's because he had problems with New Zealand cricket administrators...Fair to acknowledge them though, they both shined brightly for their brief time on the ODI stage.