A True great of the ODI game.

[Ram]

In one of the previous threads , there was a discussion on Tony Greig's comment that anybody who played as many matches as Sachin did , would end up scoring 15,000 runs. As an argument against it , the career runs of some players were extrapolated according to their averages and was shown that ONLY Viv Richards would have scored as many runs as Sachin did , if he had played the same number of matches. The other names in that comparison list were Ponting, Kallis, Lara, Bevan ,Dravid and Inzamam. The above batsman ( along with Ganguly) were undoubtedly the most prolific batsman of ODIs. But I sincerely feel one another person deserves a place in that line-up even though he doesnt match them with the amount of runs scored. And that player is none another than Dean Jones. Here is his ODI record. Mat Runs HS BatAv 100 50 W BB BowlAv 5w Ct St overall 164 6068 145 44.61 7 46 3 2/34 27.00 0 54 0 I would say his record is nothing short of outstanding. He played majority of his cricket in an era when ODI wasnt the predominant form of the game. The Average scores were much lesser than the ones of today, the boundaries were much larger and there were no power plays and stuff. Keeping all this in context, I would rate Dean Jones among the all time top 5 ODI batsman ever. At a time when an average of 33, 34 was considered very respectable , Jones averaged an unbelievable 45 ! He was peerless in his era ! Predator was saying how Yuvraj Singh was India's top gun in ODI's since 77% of the times Yuvraj crossed 50 , India won . And guess what the percentage is for Jones ? EXACTLY THE SAME 77%. Now we have to keep in mind Jones has nearly twice as many scores over 50+ that Yuvraj has. That makes that stat even more special. I truly regret not being able to watch Dean Jones in action in ODIs. He was ahead of his times , BY A MILE.

[Lurker]

Dean Jones was a fantastic cricketer and he would always be picked in my all time LOI XI. The man had electricty, he would always score runs and in a very dominant manner. It bears testament to the man that he was widely acknowledged as the best LOI bat, that too at a time when Richards and Miandad were still around, though on their last leg. The only real challenge for Deano would come from Martin Crowe, another LOI great. Jones was great in Test cricket too and but for his tiff with Bob Simpson he would have played lot more. His innings at Chennai in Tied Test is one of the all time best innings played. Plus the man fielded like a tiger in the gully position, one of the greats in that position. Overall a great cricketer and certainly the best Australian LOI bat I have seen. I rate him much ahead of the likes of Bevan, Ponting & Gilly. xx

[Guest BossBhai]

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[Ram]

Jones has a ODI SR of 72 .. nothing spectacular as such ... Sehwag has that strike rate in Test matches .... heheheee

I am pretty much sure Dravid , Ganguly , Kallis have SR's in the same region. Besides, I think its very naive to make comparison across different eras. One day games took a paradigm turn after the 96 world cup , where teams went after the bowling and got 250+ scores consistently. That wasnt the case when Jones played

[CC1981]

Deano imo has better claims to be in the alltime XI than any batsmen of the last 15 years who's last names arnt Tendulkar, Lara,Bevan and Ponting. Unfortunately for Deano, i cannot leave any of those out and IVA would be the first name i'd put down for that list..so Deano has to take the backseat. Deano played in the era of someone who is arguably the BEST ODI batsman ever, greater than even Tendulkar : Issac Vivian Alexander Richards and got overshadowed a fair bit.

[gator]

Deano is way better than Lara and Punter and miles ahead of Bevan..... take it from a guy who has watched Deano since his debut.... Punter and Lara are just good odi players like the Miandads of the 80s.... Deano was phenomenal... Bevan.... hmm, over-rated....

[The Outsider]

Though he played relatively few ODIs, Zaheer Abbas also has a phenomenal ODI record for his time.

[Guest BossBhai]

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[Guest dada_rocks]

I have forgotten how many times dena jpnes has spolied India's party. guy was electric in the field in between the wicket not to mention that collosus batting.. BTW I do not buy 5-6 down batsmen being branded as some kind of match winner because their 50 odd score invariably ends in team winning. reason is when these batsman come out to bat more often than not rest of the batsmen have done their job and all that is needed is odd fifty hence these skewed stat in their favour be it bevan or yuvraj..

[Ram]

Sure thats why I took Sehwags Test SR rather than his ODI SR to compare .... with. And players like Kapil ' date= Viv played way before Deano's time and had far better strike rates in ODIs.

BB.. Dont you think for someone who played between 81 and 92 , a strike rate of 72 is actually pretty good. I am pretty sure for someone who scored so many runs in that time , Jones' strike rate will be up among the top.

[Ram]

BTW I do not buy 5-6 down batsmen being branded as some kind of match winner because their 50 odd score invariably ends in team winning. reason is when these batsman come out to bat more often than not rest of the batsmen have done their job and all that is needed is odd fifty hence these skewed stat in their favour be it bevan or yuvraj..

On the contrary , its the no.5 and no.6 that is most valuable batting postion in an ODI nowadays. With the totals going so high , its these lower middle order batsman who have either come in late and slam-bang or come in under pressure and score valuable runs while chasing. And whats this argument of " rest of the batsman have done their job ? " . The job is NOT done till the game is won , and its the middle order that wins the game for you. And its not just the stats about number of winning 50's that we are talking about. Its the context. And do you think all no 5's will have a similar match winning influence as either Yuvi or Bevan ? No way !

[Guest BossBhai]

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[Predator_05]

...but Kapil has a batting average of 23. I'd rather have Jones. How many batsmen from that generation (Viv Richards aside) match or better Dean Jones' 44 per dig @ 72 ? Only one - Greenidge (5134 @ 45). When considering other good ODI batsmen from that era, only two others average over 40 - Miandad and Haynes. Lamb, Crowe, Robin Smith are all under 40. Deano was the best ODI batsman of his generation

[The Outsider]

Greenidge (5134 @ 45)

Greenidge's SR was significantly lower than Jones. I think he was around the 65-67 mark. Also, Jones batted at number 3 most of the times, so the argument of being at 5-6 in chases leading to higher average does not apply to him.

[Ram]

Besides , Jones got a 50+ score every 3.09 innings he played. That is even higher than Sachin's 3.23. The gist of whole argument is , Jones scored more runs than any of his contemporaries , scored faster than most of his contemporaries and 80 % of the time he scored worthwhile runs , Australia won. I dont know if we need any more qualifications for greatness. P.S - When i say contemporaries , I refer to batsman who played between 82-92 period.

[Lurker]

^^ A good example perhaps is that of Srikkanth. A swasbuckler who is widely preceived as the fastest opener of his times and by most account a batsman who was much ahead of his time with over the top hitting averages a SR of 71.4, a good run less than Deano. xx

[Donny]

I also agree Michael Bevan is over rated. His reputation was enhanced by 3 or 4 dramatic victories by Australia while Bevo was at the crease. He was simply very competent in a run chase or helping to set a target. He would be less revered these days where teams are looking at 10 r.p.o. in the last 10 overs. Many thought he was 'let go' too early but, with top cricket, esp. ODIs becoming such an exact discipline, it was his fielding that let him down in the years just prior to him being dropped. Too many batsmen were taking twos 'on his arm'. Oh yes, he was still greyhound like in the outfield but became a liability because of his weak throws. In fact, I found it fairly easy to select Mike Hussey ahead of him in my all time best Aussie ODI team. As a few have mentioned, Deano played in an entirely different era of ODIs to the present style. In his day, he was peerless. Was just about the first picked (with Viv) in any ODI Team of the Century.

[Guest dada_rocks]

On the contrary , its the no.5 and no.6 that is most valuable batting postion in an ODI nowadays. With the totals going so high , its these lower middle order batsman who have either come in late and slam-bang or come in under pressure and score valuable runs while chasing. And whats this argument of " rest of the batsman have done their job ? " . The job is NOT done till the game is won , and its the middle order that wins the game for you. And its not just the stats about number of winning 50's that we are talking about. Its the context. And do you think all no 5's will have a similar match winning influence as either Yuvi or Bevan ? No way !

any good batsman playing at no. five will have skewed stat of fifty in winning cause for the reason I already mentioned..

[The Outsider]

any good batsman playing at no. five will have skewed stat of fifty in winning cause for the reason I already mentioned..

True, but Jones batted at No. 3.

[King]

Eyes closed, without looking at the statistics I rate Deano as one of the top batsmen ever in ODIs. I have seen him win so many games for Australia in the late 80s and 90s. He was stellar in the ODIs in particular and some of his shots still are itched in my mind. Truly a top class cricketer but I've read he lost it a bit in his head towards the end of his career otherwise should have played more test matches for Australia.