Brian Lara, How Good Was He?

[STFU Donnie]

Ponting spent his career batting at the top order. Steve Waugh spent his career batting in the middle order. It makes a big difference.

An uncharitable person might say: Steve Waugh spent his career hiding in the middle order.

 

[Schraderbrau]

An uncharitable person might say: Steve Waugh spent his career hiding in the middle order.

bowling shane

 

[Gough]

An uncharitable person might say: Steve Waugh spent his career hiding in the middle order.

Steve Waugh was a good politician, he leveraged the public's support for him against the selector's desire to drop him.
AB walked out of Test cricket in front of a handful of people at Kingsmead. #justsayin

 

[STFU Donnie]

Steve Waugh was a good politician, he leveraged the public's support for him against the selector's desire to drop him.
AB walked out of Test cricket in front of a handful of people at Kingsmead. #justsayin

I'm not sure if you're supporting Waugh or not? AB was the single bulwark between utter chaos and some (fleeting) mwasure of success for about five years in the mid-late 80s.

 

[Lebbo73]

I remember Lara tearing Warney a new one in an ODI in Perth. The Windies needed at least 60 odd off about 30 or so deliveries. They got there like a good racehorse easing down on the line.
Another ODI I remember was at the MCG I think. The Windies were 8 fa and needed another 100 runs off 10 overs. When the rain came and the match was given to Australia, the Windies were still 8 out, requiring 60 off about 6 overs. The rain probably saved Australia that night.

 

[Gough]

I'm not sure if you're supporting Waugh or not? AB was the single bulwark between utter chaos and some (fleeting) mwasure of success for about five years in the mid-late 80s.

I'm no Steve Waugh fan, his desire for a farewell tour of Australia, complete with Murdoch minted medal is in stark contrast with how AB ended his career, and probably says much about the two of them.

 

[Lebbo73]

I'm no Steve Waugh fan, his desire for a farewell tour of Australia, complete with Murdoch minted medal is in stark contrast with how AB ended his career, and probably says much about the two of them.

Yeah, I remember Chappelle bagging him out for railroading Australia's summer with his farewell tour of the country.
I was a Steve Waugh fan who honestly felt that Waugh deserved more time to save his career before that memorable last ball of the day Sydney ton. His summer was handicapped thanks to DVT from a flight back from England I think. However, his farewell series of the country was very selfish.

 

[imadodgyumpire]

I remember Lara tearing Warney a new one in an ODI in Perth. The Windies needed at least 60 odd off about 30 or so deliveries. They got there like a good racehorse easing down on the line.
Another ODI I remember was at the MCG I think. The Windies were 8 fa and needed another 100 runs off 10 overs. When the rain came and the match was given to Australia, the Windies were still 8 out, requiring 60 off about 6 overs. The rain probably saved Australia that night.

In that sportsman night I said I went to a couple of pages back. Lara was saying the thing about Warney was that unlike with other bowlers, where you can smack them around a bit and they lose confidence, Warney never lost confidence. He always came at the batsman hard.

 

[footyfan1978]

Ponting spent his career batting at the top order. Steve Waugh spent his career batting in the middle order. It makes a big difference.

Not entirely true.
Ponting started at 3. Then got dropped when lost form as a youngster and got back in again batting at number 6 in order. Fairly sure when we knocked off the West Indies for first time in two decades Ponting was in lower order. When he matured after probably one more dropping he eventually worked his way into first drop which was ideal for his style of play. Before that it was a number of players. Langer was there for a bit too. Only when Slater got dropped on Ashes tour did Langer open and shut the door on Slater getting back.
Might have been around then that Ponting made number 3 his own for most of the remainder of his career.

Steve Waugh probably started batting after the keeper in start of his career. He was picked as an allrounder to start with and not expected to bat high up in order. Nick named the Ice Man in our World Cup 87 win due to his allrounding impact in one dayers. As his career went on he bowled less and less as his body could not cope with the bowling load.

Both champion players.

 

[JackOutback]

An uncharitable person might say: Steve Waugh spent his career hiding in the middle order.

A more charitable person might say averaging 51 when batting often with the tail is one hell of an achievement.

 

[STFU Donnie]

I'm no Steve Waugh fan, his desire for a farewell tour of Australia, complete with Murdoch minted medal is in stark contrast with how AB ended his career, and probably says much about the two of them.

His running out Damien Martyn says everything you ever needed to know.

 

[STFU Donnie]

A more charitable person might say averaging 51 when batting often with the tail is one hell of an achievement.

Taking a single off the first ball and leaving nine, ten and jack to fend for themselves can do wonders for the average.

 

[STFU Donnie]

In that sportsman night I said I went to a couple of pages back. Lara was saying the thing about Warney was that unlike with other bowlers, where you can smack them around a bit and they lose confidence, Warney never lost confidence. He always came at the batsman hard.

Personally I think Warne is an execrable human being, but is hands down the best bowler I have ever seen.

 

[Doss]

Taking a single off the first ball and leaving nine, ten and jack to fend for themselves can do wonders for the average.

You speak like he did this all the time, though. He hardly did.

There was the one infamous Test where he should have farmed the strike and it cost us the game but there were also many great partnerships with tailenders.

 

[Schraderbrau]

Personally I think Warne is an execrable human being, but is hands down the best bowler I have ever seen.

probably the best sentence I've read on warne

 

[Schraderbrau]

My fav lara knock was in the first game of the SA World Cup. I stayed up well into the night basically just to watch him bat. He'd just come back into the team after a long layoff (can't remember why) and was batting like garbage. SA had the Windies something like 3 for 30 off 15 overs. He'd been dropped, and was something stupid like 10 runs off about 40 balls. Anyway he made the slowest first 30 ever and then all of a sudden he went boom was on a hundred, the windies were 280 and SA got owned.

 

[JackOutback]

Taking a single off the first ball and leaving nine, ten and jack to fend for themselves can do wonders for the average.

Unbelievable that he got his average to 51 if he gave the strike to tailenders (who I can only assume got out since their averages were much lower).

 

[STFU Donnie]

Unbelievable that he got his average to 51 if he gave the strike to tailenders (who I can only assume got out since their averages were much lower).

I don't think you understand how averages are calculated.

 

[JackOutback]

I don't think you understand how averages are calculated.

I do; while Waugh had more not outs than Ponting (46 to 29), it's hardly significant enough to drag an ordinary bat to the same average. He was a gun.

 

[Carl Hooper]

My fav lara knock was in the first game of the SA World Cup. I stayed up well into the night basically just to watch him bat. He'd just come back into the team after a long layoff (can't remember why) and was batting like garbage. SA had the Windies something like 3 for 30 off 15 overs. He'd been dropped, and was something stupid like 10 runs off about 40 balls. Anyway he made the slowest first 30 ever and then all of a sudden he went boom was on a hundred, the windies were 280 and SA got owned.

Almost the same story, I remember being in year 8, staying up late to watch this first game of the world cup.
This was my first time watching Lara bat..
He instantly became my favourite batsman.

 

[ioppolo]

My fav lara knock was in the first game of the SA World Cup. I stayed up well into the night basically just to watch him bat. He'd just come back into the team after a long layoff (can't remember why) and was batting like garbage. SA had the Windies something like 3 for 30 off 15 overs. He'd been dropped, and was something stupid like 10 runs off about 40 balls. Anyway he made the slowest first 30 ever and then all of a sudden he went boom was on a hundred, the windies were 280 and SA got owned.

Didn't RSA lose by 4 runs but had an over taken off their run chase because of a slow over rate?

 

[Doss]

 

[bombersfan4000]

An uncharitable person might say: Steve Waugh spent his career hiding in the middle order.

Waugh couldn't struggled when there was any shine on the ball. A good batsman that dug in but over rated

 

[Schraderbrau]

Didn't RSA lose by 4 runs but had an over taken off their run chase because of a slow over rate?

i can't remember tbh. Didn't even watch the second innings because of the time.

 

[STFU Donnie]

Didn't RSA lose by 4 runs but had an over taken off their run chase because of a slow over rate?

3 runs, and you're correct about them losing an over. It was a fairly common occurrence with South Africa at World Cups.

http://howstat.com/cricket/Statistics/WorldCup/MatchScorecard.asp?MatchCode=2028