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A question for those who followed cricket diligently in the 1990s


MechEng

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Posted

Rate these fast bowlers in the order of how threatening they looked while you watched them on tv. Ignore stats and other things but just rate these bowlers on how unplayable they looked:

 

Allan Donald, Curtly Ambrose, Waqar Younis, Wasim Akram, Courtney Walsh

 

Also did Steyn looked more threatening than any of these bowlers on tv?

Posted

Allan Donald

Wasim Akram

Ambrose

Waqar Younis 

Walsh

 

Donald would easily be at the top considering how much Indian Batsmen used to struggle against him in the 90s.

 

Posted
24 minutes ago, MechEng said:

Rate these fast bowlers in the order of how threatening they looked while you watched them on tv. Ignore stats and other things but just rate these bowlers on how unplayable they looked:

 

Allan Donald, Curtly Ambrose, Waqar Younis, Wasim Akram, Courtney Walsh

 

Also did Steyn looked more threatening than any of these bowlers on tv?

Ambrose

Wasim

Donald

Walsh

Waqar

 

In hindsight Ambrose and Wasim are almost neck to neck. Ambrose rarely gave away anything as his stats suggest. GOAT Bowler. Be it Tests/ODIs. He was just too good. At one stage his ODI econ rate was 2.57. Wasim is almost on par with Ambrose, IMO. He used to take wickets for fun IN Odi's. He was never really easy to get away with by the opposition batsmen. Ambrose and Wasim are top 1 and 2. Both these bowlers suffered from their team batsmen not complimenting their bowling efforts.

 

Donald was very good against almost everyone except for the Aussies. They always played him more or less well. He is easily the quickest among all the bowlers listed here. Walsh was a workhorse bowler. Still remember coming home from school during the Aus/WI semi in 1996 to see ambrose/walsh having bowled 10-11 opening overs against australia for a paltry 12-15 runs team score. he genuinely complimented ambrose in their playing days.

 

Waqar showed a lot of talent/promise but in my opinion he fizzled out in the later parts of his career. He could have been even more deadlier than wasim but it wasn't to be.

 

Ideally a great man is missing from this list and it's the incomparable Pigeon.

Posted

Started watching cricket in the mid-90s so my ranking would be Ambrose > Akram > Donald > Walsh > Waqar. Missed peak Waqar from 1990-94 so it's kinda unfair on him and for a lot of us the abiding memory of Waqar is Jadeja taking him to the cleaners in the 1996 WC. Ambrose and Akram seemed the most threatening and the hardest to dominate. It seemed as if most batsmen played safe against them while taking on other bowlers in the side. Donald was ferocious at his best but still got some tap every now and then. 

Posted (edited)
1 hour ago, Jimmy Cliff said:

Started watching cricket in the mid-90s so my ranking would be Ambrose > Akram > Donald > Walsh > Waqar. Missed peak Waqar from 1990-94 so it's kinda unfair on him and for a lot of us the abiding memory of Waqar is Jadeja taking him to the cleaners in the 1996 WC. Ambrose and Akram seemed the most threatening and the hardest to dominate. It seemed as if most batsmen played safe against them while taking on other bowlers in the side. Donald was ferocious at his best but still got some tap every now and then. 

 

1 hour ago, Stan AF said:

The class of this particular list hasn't been seen in the last 10 years or so. No Kidding at all. Bowling has degenerated.

Both have watched Wasim Akram during his playing days. How would you compare Dale Steyn with him?

 

Steyn is capable of bowling out batting line ups for scores <50 without trying to bowl too fast. 

Edited by MechEng
Posted
19 minutes ago, MechEng said:

 

Both have watched Wasim Akram during his playing days. How would you compare Dale Steyn with him?

 

Steyn is capable of bowling out batting line ups for scores <50 without trying to bowl too fast. 

If you ignore the hanky panky with ball tampering, Akram was far more skillful than Steyn. And pretty much better than anyone when it comes to bowling jaffas out of nowhere. But Steyn has the better mentality/mongrel that you want from your spearhead in Tests.

Posted
3 hours ago, Jimmy Cliff said:

If you ignore the hanky panky with ball tampering, Akram was far more skillful than Steyn. And pretty much better than anyone when it comes to bowling jaffas out of nowhere. But Steyn has the better mentality/mongrel that you want from your spearhead in Tests.

When I watched his last game in 2003 World Cup, I was surprised how could he get such late inswing at 85-87 mph. No one would expect a 36 year old fast bowler to do that, he was naturally gifted I guess.

Posted
4 hours ago, MechEng said:

When I watched his last game in 2003 World Cup, I was surprised how could he get such late inswing at 85-87 mph. No one would expect a 36 year old fast bowler to do that, he was naturally gifted I guess.

 

This is what Eoin Morgan had to say about him nearly a decade later.

 

https://twitter.com/Eoin16/status/59265563200983040

 

@Eoin16

toughest bowler to face at the moment? Wasim Akram in the KKR nets..he could easily still play!! QUALITY!!

Posted (edited)
10 hours ago, MechEng said:

 

Both have watched Wasim Akram during his playing days. How would you compare Dale Steyn with him?

 

Steyn is capable of bowling out batting line ups for scores <50 without trying to bowl too fast. 

Steyn was good, very good. But wasim is an ATG. 

Wasim could generate quick pace with a limited run up and quick arm action. Probably the only guy I've seen to generate pace with that limited runup. He could swing the ball both ways, bowl quick toe crushing yorkers and bouncers aiming at the body.

See this ball for crazy late/reverse swing. The ball literally changes direction at the very last yard as it deviates from the bat and thuds on to the pad.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5UPaPiOVIMo

Edited by Stan AF
Posted (edited)

Akram boosted his tally by taking wickets of lower order clowns. Not to forget the magic art of bottle caps, like that early 90s tour to Eng. Overrated test bowler, top 3 in ODIs. Steyn is a league above him in tests, cricket is not just about talent or tricks.

Edited by Gollum
Posted
6 hours ago, Gollum said:

Akram boosted his tally by taking wickets of lower order clowns. Not to forget the magic art of bottle caps, like that early 90s tour to Eng. Overrated test bowler, top 3 in ODIs. Steyn is a league above him in tests, cricket is not just about talent or tricks.

True, Steyn doesn't bowl inswing and sticks to outswing only and attacks outside off stump at pace. With only this he's effective.

Posted
On 4/25/2020 at 11:10 AM, Stan AF said:

Ambrose

Wasim

Donald

Walsh

Waqar

 

In hindsight Ambrose and Wasim are almost neck to neck. Ambrose rarely gave away anything as his stats suggest. GOAT Bowler. Be it Tests/ODIs. He was just too good. At one stage his ODI econ rate was 2.57. Wasim is almost on par with Ambrose, IMO. He used to take wickets for fun IN Odi's. He was never really easy to get away with by the opposition batsmen. Ambrose and Wasim are top 1 and 2. Both these bowlers suffered from their team batsmen not complimenting their bowling efforts.

 

Donald was very good against almost everyone except for the Aussies. They always played him more or less well. He is easily the quickest among all the bowlers listed here. Walsh was a workhorse bowler. Still remember coming home from school during the Aus/WI semi in 1996 to see ambrose/walsh having bowled 10-11 opening overs against australia for a paltry 12-15 runs team score. he genuinely complimented ambrose in their playing days.

 

Waqar showed a lot of talent/promise but in my opinion he fizzled out in the later parts of his career. He could have been even more deadlier than wasim but it wasn't to be.

 

Ideally a great man is missing from this list and it's the incomparable Pigeon.

 

22 minutes ago, Cricspin said:

I watched cricket through the 90's. All the bowlers listed are top class and scary but for some reason I did not want Indian batsmen to face Donald and followed by Ambrose. Those two were scary, not just skillful.

 

Donald

Ambrose

Waqar

Wasim 

 

Walsh was not scary at all. Felt gentle in comparison to Ambrose.

 

Steyn is Same league as the above and how scared can you really be after a point. 

If you thought Walsh was only a workhorse...

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2uw_fK5bQnM

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