The best & worst against Murali

[Bumper]

Interesting to note that the best against Murali are mostly aggressive/attacking batsmen (with one or two exceptions) The Best The batsmen who have done well against Murali ... (since May 2001)

Batsman Runs/ Balls Dismissals Average Runs per over 
Stephen Fleming 171/ 453 0 - 2.26 
Ricky Ponting 98/ 147 0 - 4.00 
Brian Lara 373/ 710 3 124.33 3.15 
Jacques Kallis 88/ 205 1 88.00 2.57 
Shaun Pollock 83/ 159 1 83.00 3.13 
Inzamam-ul-Haq 80/ 148 1 80.00 3.24 
Jacques Rudolph 72/ 233 1 72.00 1.85 
VVS Laxman 58/ 128 1 58.00 2.71 

The Worst And the batsmen who haven't (since May 2001)

Batsman Runs/ Balls Dismissals Average Runs per over 
Andrew Flintoff 80/ 186 6 13.33 2.58 
Marcus Trescothick 110/ 266 8 13.75 2.48 
Paul Collingwood 85/ 262 5 17.00 1.94 
Michael Vaughan 68/ 212 4 17.00 1.92 
Sachin Tendulkar 55/ 143 3 18.33 2.30 
Graham Thorpe 110/ 387 5 22.00 1.70 
Ramnaresh Sarwan 113/ 358 5 22.60 1.89 
Adam Gilchrist 96/ 158 4 24.00 3.64 

[Predator_05]

Your list contradicts what you are saying. The likes of Kallis, Rudolph, Fleming and Inzamam aren't attacking batsmen by any stretch of the imagination. The attacking batsmen seem to be in the 2nd list - Trescothick, Flintoff, Sarwan, Gilchrist

[Bumper]

Attacking may not guranatee success against Murali.But poking & prodding wont take the batsman too far -- which is what i meant

[The Outsider]

Rather than talking about attacking and defensive batsmen in general, we should be looking at their approach against Murali ie. their SR against him. In that respect, one can say it is a fair mix with batsmen above and below a SR of 50.

[Bumper]

The likes of Kallis, Rudolph, Fleming and Inzamam aren't attacking batsmen by any stretch of the imagination. The attacking batsmen seem to be in the 2nd list - Trescothick, Flintoff, Sarwan, Gilchrist

Except Kallis & Rudolph, the rest are stroke makers. They dont go out there with the intention of hanging around for 10 hours.

[The Outsider]

Attacking may not guranatee success against Murali.But poking & prodding wont take the batsman too far -- which is what i meant

That seems to be true. The only batsman with a SR of greater than 50 in the failure list is Gilchrist.

[Predator_05]

Doesn't mean much. Thorpe, Vaughan, Tendulkar, Sarwan, and Tresco still have excellent records vs SL.

[The Outsider]

Doesn't mean much. Thorpe' date=' Vaughan, Tendulkar, Sarwan, and Tresco still have excellent records vs SL.[/quote'] Their strategy of success seems to be to see off Murali and score off the others. Nothing wrong with that either as long as you are putting runs on the board.