Glenn Mcgrath vs Wasim Akram

[Bublu Bhuyan]

Have you seen how many times Mcgrath dismissed Sachin' date=' Lara, Sehwag, Dravid ?:winky:[/quote'] McGrath has taken Sachin's scalp 7 times, Lara 15 times. Don't know about Dravid. McGrath is the only bowler of his era whom no batsman could dominate over a long period. Sure SRT and Lara dominated him in patches, but ultimately he ended up getting the better of both of them.

[Lord]

I don't want to be hypocrite. But Akram never proved himself against mighty Aussies of 2000. He averaged 55 in 1999 tour' date='averaged 45 in OZ tour of Pak.[/quote'] McGrath never played against Oz,so thats inconsequential

[Bublu Bhuyan]

I don't want to be hypocrite. But Akram never proved himself against mighty Aussies of 2000. He averaged 55 in 1999 tour' date='averaged 45 in OZ tour of Pak.[/quote'] Let's be honest. Great players have occasional bad series here and there. Sachin averaged about 22 in India's tour of Pakistan in 2006. That doesn't take anything away from him, does it? Dravid flopped miserably from September, 2006 till the end of 2008, and had many series with averages below 30. Neither does that take anything away from him.

[satyam1729]

McGrath never played against Oz' date='so thats inconsequential[/quote'] He destroyed India in India. No mean fate.

[Bublu Bhuyan]

He destroyed India in India. No mean fate.

Akram too averaged about 22 odd in India during the Test series in 1999.

[satyam1729]

Let's be honest. Great players have occasional bad series here and there. Sachin averaged about 22 in India's tour of Pakistan in 2006. That doesn't take anything away from him' date=' does it? Dravid flopped miserably from September, 2006 till the end of 2008, and had many series with averages below 30. Neither does that take anything away from him.[/quote'] Then which great team did he dominate ? He has large percentage of lower order wickets in comparison to Mcgrath.

[satyam1729]

Akram too averaged about 22 odd in India during the Test series in 1999.

That series was the most bowling -friendly series ever. Highest scorer was S Ramesh with 323 runs. Srinath outbowled Akram

[Bublu Bhuyan]

Then which great team did he dominate ? He has large percentage of lower order wickets in comparison to Mcgrath.

The only country he averaged more than 30 against is England (30.66) and the only country where he averaged more than 30 is South Africa (39, but he played just 2 Test matches there).

[satyam1729]

Mcgrath took 75% of his wickets( 1-7) Akram took 65% of his wickets( 1-7) http://www.howstat.com/cricket/Statistics/Players/PlayerWicketAnalysisGraph.asp?PlayerID=1133 http://www.howstat.com/cricket/Statistics/Players/PlayerWicketAnalysisGraph.asp?PlayerID=0029

[99.94]

It seems to me McGrath is one of the few players whose record you struggle to pick holes at. Even great players have their downfalls (Ponting in India - blah blah etc etc) but I can't think of any place, team, situation, or time frame where McGrath struggled..

[Bublu Bhuyan]

That series was the most bowling -friendly series ever. Highest scorer was S Ramesh with 323 runs. Srinath outbowled Akram

S. Ramesh scored 202 runs in that series, not 323 runs. It was a 2 Test match series so obviously you can't expect batsman to score in exceed of 300 or 400 runs in total. And Srinath averaged 55.75 @ SR 82.5 in that series. Kumble was the top performer with the ball in the series (average wise) with an average of 14.85, and that was mainly because of his 10 wicket haul. Saqlain Mushtaq won the MOS award in that series for taking 20 wickets which came at 20.15 a piece @ SR 44.9 Here's the link to those data - http://static.cricinfo.com/db/ARCHIVE/1998-99/PAK_IN_IND/PAK_IN_IND_JAN-FEB1999_TEST_AVS.html

[satyam1729]

It seems to me McGrath is one of the few players whose record you struggle to pick holes at. Even great players have their downfalls (Ponting in India - blah blah etc etc) but I can't think of any place' date=' team, situation, or time frame where McGrath struggled..[/quote'] In Pakistan :winky: But he still outperformed Akram in that series.

[satyam1729]

S. Ramesh scored 202 runs in that series, not 323 runs. It was a 2 Test match series so obviously you can't expect batsman to score in exceed of 300 or 400 runs in total. And Srinath averaged 55.75 @ SR 82.5 in that series. Kumble was the top performer with the ball in the series (average wise) with an average of 14.85, and that was mainly because of his 10 wicket haul.

I am including Kolkata test also. 3 test .

[Bublu Bhuyan]

It seems to me McGrath is one of the few players whose record you struggle to pick holes at. Even great players have their downfalls (Ponting in India - blah blah etc etc) but I can't think of any place' date=' team, situation, or time frame where McGrath struggled..[/quote'] That's precisely why I rate him the best bowler among all his contemporaries. The only hole in his record is an average of about 30 in Pakistan, but he barely played there.

[Karan114]

It seems to me McGrath is one of the few players whose record you struggle to pick holes at. Even great players have their downfalls (Ponting in India - blah blah etc etc) but I can't think of any place' date=' team, situation, or time frame where McGrath struggled..[/quote'] Yep, and his success against the best batsmen of his time and you can easily see why the man was a class apart.

[99.94]

An average of about 30 on the roads in Pakistan ain't too shabby though eh!? :two_thumbs_up:

[99.94]

Finished reading McGrath's biography recently - a pretty amazing career/life.

[satyam1729]

Finished reading McGrath's biography recently - a pretty amazing career/life.

Best Australian bowler ever ? :nervous:

[Mamu]

I wouldnt want to sound asinine by calling Akram a not good bowler, but he was very inconsistent for my liking. He would blow away a team in one match -- would come up croppers the very next match. Which is why Pakistan does not a winning record in 25 years in 4 countries and In England for more than 15 years despite having Wasim and Waqar. It is very surprising these guys struggled the way did - on away series, this despite them having quite a good batting line up.

[straighttalk]

The comparison between Akram and Mcgrath is very similiar to that between Warne and Kumble. All four are among the greatest practitioner of their art, but their methods are different. Mcgrath and Kumble depended on their work ethics, nagging line and length, Warne and Akram were more talented and had a much more diverse set of skills. The pace at which Akram bowls, the ability to swing the ball both ways, the deadly yorker and the bouncer and reverse swing makes him very very lethal. I will always choose Akram over Mcgrath anyday. He is a pleasure to watch. Glen Mcgrath is a great bowler in his own right with his nagging accuracy and relentless pursuit of excellence. The fact that Mcgrath was a part of an all conquering team also plays a very important part. In tests, they were comprarable, but in ODI's WASIM AKRAM is miles ahead of any other bowler, simply for his death bowling.