Murali and Mendis greatest spin attack ever!

[King Tendulkar]

These two combined have IMO formed the greatest spin pairing this planet has ever seen. They are going to terrify teams in the next couple of years, especially at home. It really puts in to perpesctive our woes against them when we toured there. As I was saying at the time and so said many other who actually watched the games, they bowled brillinalty and made run scoring as difficult as I have seen for a long time in tests. Especially as they are backed up by the best keeper in Jawardyne I have seen in last 10 years. They are both world greats in their own right and put together make a devasting partneship. No let up for batters and also two bowlers who pose different problems. The next couple of years are going to put our performances against them in perspective. The fact that some people were calling for the heads of some of our batsmen based on that tour will also be shown to be ridiculous as they faced brilliant bowling. Our brillinace against the aussies after showed that it was the SL bowling which was brilliant and not that our batsman were past it. These two spinners are awesome and are going to destroy many a batting line up!

[Guest HariSampath]

I completely agree. Especially Ajanta Mendis, I am sure he is gonna slice through all the batting lineups in the world for many years. I really think he will become a one man demolition squad, with no batter ever figuring out how to play him. Some say that over time Mendis can be picked, but I completely disagree, he may be picked half the time at best, but he cant be played well. When he is delivering the ball at 90k and is arrow straight most of the time, and when the ball can spin either way till the point of pitching, this is a nightmare for any batter. In many ways I sympathise with the top 4 Indian batsmen, because they were all cleaned up by a fantastic and unplayable bowler.

[Lord]

These two combined have IMO formed the greatest spin pairing this planet has ever seen. They are going to terrify teams in the next couple of years, especially at home. It really puts in to perpesctive our woes against them when we toured there. As I was saying at the time and so said many other who actually watched the games, they bowled brillinalty and made run scoring as difficult as I have seen for a long time in tests. Especially as they are backed up by the best keeper in Jawardyne I have seen in last 10 years. They are both world greats in their own right and put together make a devasting partneship. No let up for batters and also two bowlers who pose different problems. The next couple of years are going to put our performances against them in perspective. The fact that some people were calling for the heads of some of our batsmen based on that tour will also be shown to be ridiculous as they faced brilliant bowling. Our brillinace against the aussies after showed that it was the SL bowling which was brilliant and not that our batsman were past it. These two spinners are awesome and are going to destroy many a batting line up!

too early to say.in a year wat mendis has got as he'll be found out.greatest spin pair to date would be bhajji n kumble about the srl tour,yes they both bowled splendidly,but the referrals also helped their case as both bowl pretty straight.

[Shehezaada]

I completely agree. Especially Ajanta Mendis, I am sure he is gonna slice through all the batting lineups in the world for many years. I really think he will become a one man demolition squad, with no batter ever figuring out how to play him. Some say that over time Mendis can be picked, but I completely disagree, he may be picked half the time at best, but he cant be played well. When he is delivering the ball at 90k and is arrow straight most of the time, and when the ball can spin either way till the point of pitching, this is a nightmare for any batter. In many ways I sympathise with the top 4 Indian batsmen, because they were all cleaned up by a fantastic and unplayable bowler.

Every bowler can be picked and every bowler can be stopped. Mendis will be a world class spinner no doubt but not to the point that NO one can play him. The first part is to get your pads out of the way to avoid LBW, and play him straight.

[King]

A tad early to say, will wait for an year or so before coming to that conclusion. Mushtaq Ahmed and Saqlain Mushtaq pair wasn't too bad. The golden years of Indian cricket in the 70s when the spinners ruled were the ultimate in terms of spinning partners. Collectively they took a lot of wickets despite not playing as many test matches as they do these days.

[Willow_on_fire]

not sure about chucklitharan....Mendis is good.

[punjabi_khota]

Chuthiah chutadidharan.

[rahulrulezz]

I went for T20 Tournament here in Canada between Pakistan, Srilanka, Canada and Zimbo.... Saw Mendis training before the match bowling to one stump ... Guess what, out of 10 times bowling to ONE stump, he actually hit all the 10 balls to that one stump .. i never had any respect for spinners but Mendis changed it

[Guest HariSampath]

Every bowler can be picked and every bowler can be stopped. Mendis will be a world class spinner no doubt but not to the point that NO one can play him. The first part is to get your pads out of the way to avoid LBW' date= and play him straight.

That exactly is what I mean. Mendis can be picked, and he can be played, but all that the batsmen will be looking out to do is to *stop* him, *avoid* getting LBW etc. The sheer variety he has makes it necessary for batters to make survival their primary aim, and how much does it take for one delivery to get past, and the batter to make one mistake of just 1-2 inches in line of ball ? It will happen much much more often when facing Mendis than others. The worst case scenario when facing a top quality spinner like Warne, Murali etc is 2 possible options for the batter : ball coming in or away/straighter in case of offspin and vice versa in case of legspin. The action of the bowler's wrist position in almost all cases makes it possible for the batter to read the ball just BEFORE the moment of delivery, and its a fraction of a second earlier for seasoned and top quality batsmen like Tendulkar. In the case of Mendis this 2 way variety becomes a 3 way variety. 1) he bowls a very good regular offspin delivery, the type a fastish bowler does. 2) he bowls a freak leg break, the finger spinning front of the hand carrom ball 3) he bowls a genuine googly. He does all this " in front of his hand/fingers", with minimum wrist change and the 3 way movement is made deadly by the "straighter" option as the alternate for all 3 deliveries, making it a virtual array of possibilities for the batsmen at or a fraction later moment calculated after the delivery instant. Add to this the fact he is pretty quick through the air, and as straight as an arrow , in keeping it between the stumps, you have a lethal bowler, a batsman's nightmare, and a captain's delight. That is why I say that there is no one way to "sort Mendis"...he has to be played ball by ball, all through his career and the probability of a ball sneaking through, batter deceived just by 2 inch line difference and getting out, is incredibly higher than other type of bowlers. In short, if Mendis is bowling to any batsman in the world, however great and classy like Lara or Tendulkar, I would back Mendis to beat them once every 10 deliveries at least, and if I had to back the bowler or batter, I would back Mendis to get the wicket 10/10 times.

[Dirty_South]

M & M just ran thru the Zimboks :haha: From 123/3 to 127 All out :hysterical::hysterical:

[King Tendulkar]

WTF even by zimboks standards that is a ridiculous collapse. Is that some kind of record collapse?

[King Tendulkar]

From124/4 the next 6 batters all got ducks. That must be record of some kind

[Dinx - the Jinx]

The thread is very short sighted. The pair of Murali and Mendis has tasted success in ust one series and imdiately you guys are talking about best pair the world has ever seen etc. IMO I had seen better pairs of spin twins. India had a spin quatret out of which 3 played almost every mtach during the 70s. Pakistan too had Saqlain and Mushtaq together for quite a decent period. Not sure whether Warne and McGill ever played in a test together. If they did, they would have been a deadly combo too. Kumble, Raju, Chauhan were deadly at hoe during the 90s (even the thread starter says M&M deadly at home) So - lets see the M&M pair for 4-5 series and then decide whether they are deadly or idli :)

[King Tendulkar]

So - lets see the M&M pair for 4-5 series and then decide whether they are deadly or idli :)

This is exactly what I mean. I am predicting they will prove this over next 18 months or so! They in next 4 or 5 series are going to be awesome

[fineleg]

Unrelated to the Zimboks match- SL in SL (Test series) have been tough to beat. Now with M&M - it gets tougher

[Guest HariSampath]

From124/4 the next 6 batters all got ducks. That must be record of some kind

If you include the duck of SL's 1st wkt, then its 7 ducks in a row and certainly must be a record in an international The Zimboks coach must have told them all to line up their ducks :hysterical:

[Dirty_South]

:haha:

[Dinx - the Jinx]

This is exactly what I mean. I am predicting they will prove this over next 18 months or so! They in next 4 or 5 series are going to be awesome

You are not precedicting. You are concluding that they will be steamrolling very other team on the planet. Thats what I dont agree. Lets wait and see

[Guest HariSampath]

Ok...so he has just drawn his own conclusion about whats gonna happen in the future, based on what he has seen so far....forgive the poor man for "concluding"...DSR...you just stick to predicting and dont conclude about the future :hysterical:

[zubinpepsi]

You are not precedicting. You are concluding that they will be steamrolling very other team on the planet. Thats what I dont agree. Lets wait and see

no hesnt concluding anything.... how can it be a conclusion if this event hasnt occurred yet.. hes jus predicting with 100% confidence...