Greatest ODI bowler? Pace and Spin

[Mateyman]

Something interesting to consider:

All-time ODI bowlers, ordered by strike rate
(qualifying criteria - sub-30 average, sub-5 economy rate, 3000 balls/500 overs bowled, 100 wickets taken, 1 5-fer)

1. Ajantha Mendis (Sri Lanka)
2. Shane Bond (New Zealand)
3. Brett Lee (Australia)
4. Morne Morkel (South Africa)
5. Imran Tahir (South Africa)
6. Saqlain Mushtaq (Pakistan)
7. Waqar Younis (Pakistan)
8. Mitchell Johnson (Australia)
9. Shoaib Akhtar (Pakistan)
10. Allan Donald (South Africa)

54 players qualify overall, with at least one from every Test-playing nation, including 11 Australians, and some names that people wouldn't even think to consider (Nuwan Zoysa, anyone?).

Glenn McGrath comes in at #17, Murali at #22, Wasim Akram at #30, Joel Garner at #33, and Shaun Pollock at #50.

Mitchell Starc would be #1, however he's 23 balls short of the qualification criteria! Shouldn't be resting him tomorrow, records are on the line!

Was going to say, with the way the game has been going, Starc is genuinely a show to be one of the GOAT limited overs bowlers by the end of his career, given his record compared to others around at the moment

 

[Scotland]

We should.

I mean look at Ponting. A dominant ODI player in three consecutive world cup wins.

But his strike rate wouldn't be impressive anymore

Absolutely we should, but most people don't.

Ponting averaged 42 striking at 80 which is a very good record. Warner averages 42 @ 95, Steve Smith 44 @ 87, Finch 35 @ 89, Bailey 40 @ 83 etc.

Ponting's record doesn't look that great compared to guys who've only played the last 5 years but I reckon if he was playing in the 2010s he'd probably average 50 at near a run a ball.

 

[Gough]

The_Reaper you seem to be pretty handy with stats. If we could agree on a start date for the T20 era. First season IPL? Is this the sort of thing you could do? Could it be done using the cricinfo stats engine? I'm fairly ham fisted at this sort of thing.

 

[Damon_3388]

The_Reaper you seem to be pretty handy with stats. If we could agree on a start date for the T20 era. First season IPL? Is this the sort of thing you could do? Could it be done using the cricinfo stats engine? I'm fairly ham fisted at this sort of thing.

ODI bowlers in the T20/IPL era (April 2008-present), ordered by strike rate
(qualifying criteria - sub-30 average, sub-5 economy rate, 1,500 balls/250 overs bowled, 1 5-fer)

1. Mitchell Starc (Australia)
2. Hamid Hassan (Afghanistan)
3. Ajantha Mendis (Sri Lanka)
4. Amit Mishra (India)
5. Morne Morkel (South Africa)
6. Imran Tahir (South Africa)
7. Trent Boult (New Zealand)
8. Clint McKay (Australia)
9. Brett Lee (Australia)
10. Mitchell Johnson (Australia)

23 bowlers all up qualify under those criteria. Remove the need for a 5-fer, and another 9 qualify, but the top 10 remains the same.

 

[Power Raid]

Joel garner could turn the arm over OK

 

[Howard Littlejohn]

For ODIs, I'm another one to say Garner. Wasim Akram probably next. Either of those would be tough to get away even with today's batting style and bats.

Spin, I'm not so sure but probably have to stick with Warne.

It is difficult though, the game has become almost unrecognisable over the last ten years.

 

[Scotland]

Shahid Afridi is the 5th highest wicket taker in ODIs. Sanath Jayasuriya is number 10. I don't think of either of them as regular wicket takers, but they are also 5 and 3 respectively for matches played. With 3 forms of cricket now I doubt anyone will pass Tendulkar at the top of that list.

Another guy that is underrated due to injury is Shane Bond. Only played 82 ODIs but took 147 wickets @ 20.88 with a SR of 29.2. Economy rate was only 4.28 too. Ripped us apart at the 2003 WC before Bevan and Bichel saved us. Would be a definite GOAT contender had he been able to play more matches.

 

[The_Reaper]

The_Reaper you seem to be pretty handy with stats. If we could agree on a start date for the T20 era. First season IPL? Is this the sort of thing you could do? Could it be done using the cricinfo stats engine? I'm fairly ham fisted at this sort of thing.

Yeah its not hard which is why Damon_3388 got it done so well.

Cricinfos records are pretty great though unfortunately the last time they updated their site they made it a lot more difficulty to access a lot of the records unless you already know where they are

 

[Damon_3388]

Yeah its not hard which is why Damon_3388 got it done so well.

Cricinfos records are pretty great though unfortunately the last time they updated their site they made it a lot more difficulty to access a lot of the records unless you already know where they are

Yeah, once you get the hang of using Statsguru it's pretty easy, but geez they don't make it half difficult to work out initially!

 

[The 747]

It blew out a bit towards the end too, probably due to the changing nature of the game as much as anything else. Was as low as 4.63 in February 2006 (with a ridiculously good 21.73 average and 28.1 strike rate), and still at 4.70 as late as August 2011, but then going for 5.2-5.5 runs an over in his last 10-20 ODIs pushed it out to the 4.76 he finished at in July 2012.

Lee was a brilliant ODI bowler, less so in Tests but the formats get conflated in people's minds

 

[damochandler]

Donald and murali

 

[chargers 09]

Ponting was his bunny. Had an incredible record against him.

One of the greatest displays of fast bowling I've ever seen was at the 2003 World Cup. He had the Aussies jumping around everywhere and took 6 wickets.

Amazingly, New Zealand still lost that game.

Antsy Bichel was the saviour from memory? Played a similar saving role against England to from memory in the 03 WC.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Cold Sober]

GARNER/WARNE

 

[Power Raid]

Garner was ferocious

 

[SwampRat]

Joel Garner, either era.

Vic Metro Skipper and Port Adelaide draftee, Joel Garner?
https://www.foxsports.com.au/afl/af...g/news-story/01d49ec1895f29fb238f6bd58fd205d7

 

[Gough]

I've never met his parents but I bet they're awesome.

 

[eth-dog]

Not in the conversation for greatest but I always thought Nathan Bracken was underrated in ODI's. Brilliant with the white ball

 

[Carbine Chaos]

Not in the conversation for greatest but I always thought Nathan Bracken was underrated in ODI's. Brilliant with the white ball

Always fit him into my best ever Aus ODI XI. Excellent with the new ball and crafty with late cutters.

 

[footyfan1978]

I'd take Joel Garner spearing yorkers from 7 ft every time.

Garth Le Roux may make you re-think that if you faced him.

 

[eth-dog]

Always fit him into my best ever Aus ODI XI. Excellent with the new ball and crafty with late cutters.

Him, McGrath and Lee were fantastic together. Add in handy overs from Watson/Symonds and either Hogg or Warne as the spinner and we had a fantastic ODI attack. You could legitimately put our best ODI side all from the one era; with Gilly/Hayden/Ponting top order, the only debate would be who misses out of Clarke, Hussey, Bevan, Symonds, Watson and Jones in the middle.

 

[Johnny_Dogg4]

He wouldn't be on the list. But brackens death bowling was elite

 

[Johnny_Dogg4]

Mick Lewis anyone ?

 

[avishka5]

Didn't Zoysa take a wicket on the first ball of a test 3 times? All against Bangladesh and every time was Hannan Sarker? Something along those lines.

I once walked past Zoysa in colombo and the bloke was walking around a hot shot, even tho he was out of the national team for close to a decade and his greated legacy was being the bloke than bowled no balls all the time.

 

[Hellgood]

I seem to remember Zoysa had a freakish ODI series against Australia, won them a couple of games with both bat and ball.

 

[Hangover Noir]

Brad Hogg played two exceptional World Cups in 2003 (replacing Warne with his diuretics excuse) and 2007.

Ian Smith had Hogg as the best spin bowler of 2007 WC. When someone asked him about Murali, he said “he doesn’t bowl”.