WI v Australia, 3rd Test, Barbados, 12th-16th June

Gump - 13 wickets at less than 20 apiece, and way underbowled. Can someone please remind the captain that he has more bowling options than Bung and Midge?

Those whispers go into the ear on his non Captaining head

Bung:

68 Tests, 289 wickets at 29.58 (not great but improving) with 9 Michelles plus 1287 runs at 21.45 with 5 x 50s.

Whoda thunk it? Not the worst figures for a quick who can bat a bit.

During this series, his career average has dropped below Kapil Dev's, meaning he now has the second highest average of all bowlers to have taken 289 wickets or more in Test cricket.

Mind you, the bloke behind him (on 275 wickets) is an arrogant little turd, and has an average on the wrong side of 31.

And Bung sh!ts all over him in terms of strike rate - 51 to 66.

That's not very nice!

You mean he hits the target too, more often than not?

Has BLee only got nine 5-fors? Weird. I know he's had to share his wickets with greats but still, Monty's got 8 already and Sidebottom's got 5.

Hmm, Bung at 24th on the all time wicket-takers list with only 4 of those above him still playing (Chuck, Violet, Ntini and Stichaminda). A fair chance he'll end up somewhere near the top 10 - 15.

Lara Lara Laughs wrote:Has BLee only got nine 5-fors? Weird. I know he's had to share his wickets with greats but still, Monty's got 8 already and Sidebottom's got 5.

How many against Australia?

Who? Monty? One.

Bung hasn't got many against Oz. Least, I hope not.

Here's a good question - who do you think is the worst bowler with more than 300 wickets?

Lara Lara Laughs wrote:Here's a good question - who do you think is the worst bowler with more than 300 wickets?

Probably Chaminda Vaas with 343 at 29.09. Kapil Dev has the worst average at 29.64.

Third worst?

Maybe Ntini. 344 at 27.85.

I can't help thinking the Test turned on that collapse of the Windies tail in the first knock.

With more resilience and nous against The Midge, a 35 run deficit might have been a similar credit. 70 runs difference might not seem much - but a big question of momentum, for batsmen and bowlers alike. Collapsing is never good for morale - and less still for a side to bat fourth. Whereas the Aussie openers' tails were up, knowing they had an unexpected bonus of a little lead to build on. ....

Having said which, in that case Oz might well have tried a bit harder (and a bit faster) and won anyway!

PeterCS wrote:I can't help thinking the Test turned on that collapse of the Windies tail in the first knock.

With more resilience and nous against The Midge, a 35 run deficit might have been a similar credit. 70 runs difference might not seem much - but a big question of momentum, for batsmen and bowlers alike. Collapsing is never good for morale - and less still for a side to bat fourth. Whereas the Aussie openers' tails were up, knowing they had an unexpected bonus of a little lead to build on. ....

Having said which, in that case Oz might well have tried a bit harder (and a bit faster) and won anyway!

Indeed. The Windies had a golden opportunity to put 400+ on the board and basically bat Australia out of the game on a good pitch, however supposed senior players such as Gayle and Sarwan played awful shots, which really set the collapse in motion.
Could have been different last night as well. Chanders got a bit of a roughie from that man Benson (Hawkeye showed it clipping the bails, but it looked high live), and Chattergoon may have hit the ground instead of the ball as well. That could have been the 80 odd runs right there. Ah well.

An argument could be made for Bung for MOTM - 18 cheap wickets on these decks is pretty impressive and he almost always took a few of the top order while Midge cleaned up the tail. He also chipped in with useful runs.


Obviously Chanders stats were brilliant but this series was won with the bowling I think - given that the Windies only actually managed to bowl us out a couple of times.

Lara Lara Laughs wrote:Here's a good question - who do you think is the worst bowler with more than 300 wickets?

Harby will be there soon.

We play South Africa here in Australia for three tests during December and January and go over there in February and March for three more. Sandwiched in between are five ODI's. We shouldn't worry too much about them for they always choke against us and they have a weak leader but the Ashes next year is shaping as a much greater challenge than it looked when we were whipping them five love.

I've got it! Red was dumped by a Saffie man back in the 1970's.....

Latest rankings:



Name
Country
Rating
Career Best


1 K.C. Sangakkara SL 893 938 v England, 01/12/2007
2 S. Chanderpaul WI 890 890 v Australia, 12/06/2008
3 M.E.K. Hussey AUS 882 921 v West Indies, 23/05/2008
4 Mohammad Yousuf PAK 880 933 v West Indies, 27/11/2006
4 R.T. Ponting AUS 880 942 v England, 01/12/2006
6 J.H. Kallis SA 877 935 v New Zealand, 18/11/2007
7 M.L. Hayden AUS 834 935 v England, 07/11/2002
8 D.P.M.D. Jayawardena SL 810 844 v West Indies, 22/03/2008
9 Younis Khan PAK 799 856 v England, 04/08/2006
10 K.P. Pietersen ENG 795 909 v West Indies, 28/05/2007
11 M.J. Clarke AUS 723 761 v India, 26/12/2007
12 G.C. Smith SA 712 756 v New Zealand, 26/03/2004
13 S.R. Tendulkar IND 704 898 v Zimbabwe, 21/02/2002
14 R. Dravid IND 701 892 v Pakistan, 16/03/2005
15 A. Symonds AUS 700 718 v West Indies, 30/05/2008
16 A.J. Strauss ENG 686 769 v South Africa, 13/01/2005
17 V. Sehwag IND 681 854 v South Africa, 28/11/2004
18 S.C. Ganguly IND 674 713 v Australia, 10/12/1999
19 V.V.S. Laxman IND 672 753 v Australia, 02/01/2004
20 R.R. Sarwan WI 659 697 v England, 12/08/2004
21 A.N. Cook ENG 651 711 v Sri Lanka, 18/12/2007
22 I.R. Bell ENG 635 684 v Sri Lanka, 01/12/2007

And the bowlers:

1 M. Muralidaran SL 897 920 v Bangladesh, 11/07/2007
2 D.W. Steyn SA 892 897 v India, 03/04/2008
3 S.R. Clark AUS 863 863 v West Indies, 12/06/2008
4 B. Lee AUS 794 811 v West Indies, 30/05/2008
5 M. Ntini SA 777 863 v India, 26/12/2006
6 R.J. Sidebottom ENG 748 748 v New Zealand, 05/06/2008
7 W.P.U.J.C. Vaas SL 709 800 v India, 02/12/2005
8 A. Kumble IND 708 859 v Sri Lanka, 26/01/1994
9 Shoaib Akhtar PAK 684 855 v New Zealand, 26/12/2003
10 S.E. Bond NZ 668 778 v West Indies, 09/03/2006
11 M.S. Panesar ENG 647 721 v West Indies, 15/06/2007
12 J.E. Taylor WI 628 628 v Australia, 12/06/2008

And down the other end:

94 B. Casson AUS 55 55 v West Indies, 12/06/2008
94 S.W. Tait AUS 55 108 v England, 08/09/2005

Well done to Bung on attaining his highest ever ranking during this series and climbing to 4th. And of course, same to Shiv for doing likewise.