Wasim Akram or Glen Mcgrath?Who was the better bowler?

[Trichromatic]

I think one thing McGrath scores over Akram in is that it was very rare of him to get dominated by batsman. Skill wise I don't think anyone can match Akram. He was a magician.

I don't think Wasim was dominated either. Waqar was thrashed time to time, but not wasim

[Trichromatic]

Need a stat to compare catches dropped off bowling wasim vs McGrath

Hard to get that kind of stats, but here is something to compare Wasim - bowled + lbw - 48.66% McGrath - bowled + lbw - 29.87%

[riya]

I am a huge wasim fan,so i am biased.I know Mcgrath is much better statistically.however i cannot replace Wasim due to my blind bias,so i would say Wasim + Aus slip cordon...:nice:

[rkt.india]

Imagine if we were taking all our catches, guys like Ishant, Yadav. Aaron would have had far better records too.

[rkt.india]

Hard to get that kind of stats, but here is something to compare Wasim - bowled + lbw - 48.66% McGrath - bowled + lbw - 29.87%

Left armers will always have more lbw and bowlers as swing is their main weapon. Wasim also used reverse which Mcgrath never did.

[Rightarmfast]

Akram was fancy. Awkward to face, perhaps the most awkward bowler ever for batsmen. But Mcgrath was right up to the money. One would say, Akram used to waste a lot of energy with his ' magic ' balls. Mcgrath had none of them, but always had a plan against the best of the best batsmen. As a bowler, Mcgrath was better.

[Trichromatic]

Left armers will always have more lbw and bowlers as swing is their main weapon. Wasim also used reverse which Mcgrath never did.

But while he is among top 3 in bowled and lbw wickets, he is way below (even below likes of kallis) in terms of number caught wickets and I doubt that he produced less opportunities.

[Number]

But while he is among top 3 in bowled and lbw wickets' date=' he is way below (even below likes of kallis) in terms of number caught wickets and I doubt that he produced less opportunities.[/quote'] I think that is because he relied a lot on reverse swing which is effective mostly when it comes into the batsman. That gives more LBW/Bowled then edges behind the wicket.

[Trichromatic]

I think that is because he relied a lot on reverse swing which is effective mostly when it comes into the batsman. That gives more LBW/Bowled then edges behind the wicket.

Forget about bowled and LBW See the number of balls bowled to produce caught wickets by Wasim No code has to be inserted here. List of wickets caught by keeper No code has to be inserted here. He has almost same number of caught wickets (fielder + keeper) as Zaheer Khan had. Zak has 100 wickets less overall and took less number of balls to produce such wickets. Does that mean Wasim's ability to produce edges was way below Zak's? It's not just less, he is far behind other bowlers even when his strike is way better than strike rate of other bowlers

[Vijy]

Nice stats there.

[Trichromatic]

Heck even Ishant Sharma takes 230 balls to produce a edge to keeper compared to Wasim's 320. Even in terms of absolute numbers Sharma is just 14 behind Wasim even though he has taken just half the wickets.

[Detonator]

Donald and Marshall's stats are scary.

[hhhhdmt]

Akram was a better ODI bowler and Mcgrath was a better test bowler. I do think Akram under achieved as a test bowler. I think he could have done better despite Pakistan's poor fielding. Mcgrath, on the other hand, maximized his ability and was more consistent at the test level, so he deserves to be rated a bit higher than Akram in tests. If i was picking my all time test xi, Akram would be a automatic pick and Mcgrath would be a maybe for me. Despite Mcgrath's superior test record, i would pick Akram automatically because he is by far the best left armer i have ever seen and would bring so much versatility to the bowling attack. On the other hand, Mcgrath was excellent but among the control bowlers who are highly accurate he has some competitors. Hadlee and Ambrose were just as effective at drying up runs, getting edges, getting guys out etc. Ambrose also had that extra gear where he could bowl much quicker. So Akram makes it automatically into my all time test xi Mcgrath has to compete with other highly accurate bowlers like Ambrose, Hadlee and Garner for a spot.

[Rightarmfast]

Forget about bowled and LBW See the number of balls bowled to produce caught wickets by Wasim No code has to be inserted here. List of wickets caught by keeper No code has to be inserted here. He has almost same number of caught wickets (fielder + keeper) as Zaheer Khan had. Zak has 100 wickets less overall and took less number of balls to produce such wickets. Does that mean Wasim's ability to produce edges was way below Zak's? It's not just less, he is far behind other bowlers even when his strike is way better than strike rate of other bowlers

I have a different theory to this. Like I mentioned in my last comment, Wasim used to waste a lot of energy on ' magic ' balls. Now, if you guys are old enough and have followed Wasim's career, his balls used to be awkward. They used to swing so much, that they were too good to take a nick. Honestly, Wasim couldnt control his balls to convert them to nicks. One would be sure of Wasim cleaning the tailenders up with his yorkers, but with new ball he used to be scary but I don't recall him being the same with new ball. So yes, Wasim's ability of getting the top batsmen to nick was even worse than Zak.

[Muloghonto]

I have a different theory to this. Like I mentioned in my last comment, Wasim used to waste a lot of energy on ' magic ' balls. Now, if you guys are old enough and have followed Wasim's career, his balls used to be awkward. They used to swing so much, that they were too good to take a nick. Honestly, Wasim couldnt control his balls to convert them to nicks. One would be sure of Wasim cleaning the tailenders up with his yorkers, but with new ball he used to be scary but I don't recall him being the same with new ball. So yes, Wasim's ability of getting the top batsmen to nick was even worse than Zak.

That is not quite true. His magic balls used to come into the picture with the old-ish ball and the old ball. The ball that would be angled in, pitches and cuts away were the type he bowled mostly in the 25-50 over mark in tests. In the opening spells, Wasim and Waqar used to have atleast 2-3 catches dropped per innings in their early-mid 90s days. This is reflected in the stats. Its not just Wasim, virtually every Pakistani bowler, whether its spinner or fast bowler, has less % caught as part of dismissal than their counterparts. Except for Waqar, almost all the Paki bowlers, whether its spin or pace, have lower % caught. That can only mean one thing- these were great bowlers with really crappy catching cordons.

[rkt.india]

Ishant, Yada, Aaron are also great bowlers with really crappy catching cordon.

[Temujin Khaghan]

if warne, waugh and taylor were at slips and healy as keeper for akram, the story will be very different. also decent incomes for pakistanis and no need for match fixing helps too

[rkt.india]

if warne, waugh and taylor were at slips and healy as keeper for akram, the story will be very different. also decent incomes for pakistanis and no need for match fixing helps too

if warne, waugh and taylor were at slips and healy as keeper for Ishant, Yadav, Aaron, Binny, BK, story would have been very different too.

[Muloghonto]

if warne' date=' waugh and taylor were at slips and healy as keeper for Ishant, Yadav, Aaron, Binny, BK, story would have been very different too.[/quote'] Yes, as in they would be averaging low 30s/high 20s instead of high-mid 30s. In Wasim's case though, he could've easily averaged under 21 if he had such a complement of catchers, instead of catchers like Inzy, Sohail or Ejaz ahmed. It says a lot that throughout Wasim's career, the best catcher he's played with in Pakistan was Anwar and Anwar was a mediocre slipper at best.

[Rightarmfast]

if warne' date=' waugh and taylor were at slips and healy as keeper for Ishant, Yadav, Aaron, Binny, BK, story would have been very different too.[/quote'] The number of catches dropped off Srinath's bowling, you never know, with that slip cordon, he would have ended with 500 wickets :)