606v2 Greatest Middle Order Batsmen Rankings

First topic message reminder :

Same format as usual gents, give me your top 10 middle order batsmen since the war.

shankythebiggestengfan wrote:

GG wrote:Bradman
Kallis
Sobers
Lara
Tendulkar
V.Richards
Pollock
Border
Sangakkara
Ponting

Kallis at 2?

Sanga ahead of Dravid?

Kallis is awesome

Incredibly difficult but here goes:

1. Bradman
(now it gets trickier )
2. Tendulkar
3. G Pollock
4. V Richards
5. Hammond
6. Headley
7. Barrington
8. Sobers
9. G Chappell
10. Weekes

A few comments:

Sobers when captain sometimes used to hide himself down at number seven and thus out of the middle order. If not for that, he might have been higher.

I agree with Mad that there was a selfishness about Lara. That keeps him out of my top ten.

Highly honourable mentions to Andy Flower, Neil Harvey and Rohan Kanhai. All unlucky to miss out.

Special mentions to two others:

Larry Gomes, the straightman to the West Indian batting entertainers of the 1980s. Not quite ''a great''. However, he was an immensely valuable player for a truly great team and perhaps that was even more important.

David Steele, a bespectacled and grey haired thirty-three year old who was plucked from the obscurity of county cricket for twelve months and eight matches of test cricket during which he faced the might of Lillee, Thomson, Holding, Roberts and Daniel. He emerged with a test average of almost 40 and my everlasting respect. As described at the time - ''the bank clerk who went to war''.

Bradman
Sachin
Sobers
Viv
G Pollock
G Chappell
Barrington
Dravid
Lara
Border

guildfordbat wrote:Incredibly difficult but here goes:

1. Bradman
(now it gets trickier )
2. Tendulkar
3. G Pollock
4. V Richards
5. Hammond
6. Headley
7. Barrington
8. Sobers
9. G Chappell
10. Weekes

A few comments:

Sobers when captain sometimes used to hide himself down at number seven and thus out of the middle order. If not for that, he might have been higher.

I agree with Mad that there was a selfishness about Lara. That keeps him out of my top ten.

Highly honourable mentions to Andy Flower, Neil Harvey and Rohan Kanhai. All unlucky to miss out.

Special mentions to two others:

Larry Gomes, the straightman to the West Indian batting entertainers of the 1980s. Not quite ''a great''. However, he was an immensely valuable player for a truly great team and perhaps that was even more important.

David Steele, a bespectacled and grey haired thirty-three year old who was plucked from the obscurity of county cricket for twelve months and eight matches of test cricket during which he faced the might of Lillee, Thomson, Holding, Roberts and Daniel. He emerged with a test average of almost 40 and my everlasting respect. As described at the time - ''the bank clerk who went to war''.

guildford i agree about Steele. He showed tremendous courage, and was a decent player. Shame he was discarded so soon.

my top ten looks eerily similar to guildford's (same top 7 in a slightly difference order, and only one difference - Harvey for Sobers - in the top 10). I think he's been a bad influence on me

David Steele is a nice shout too, I always loved his story.

Mad for Chelsea wrote:my top ten looks eerily similar to guildford's (same top 7 in a slightly difference order, and only one difference - Harvey for Sobers - in the top 10). I think he's been a bad influence on me

David Steele is a nice shout too, I always loved his story.

Mad - better a bad influence than of no effect!

Now how about you and Cowdrey?

i wish steele played a lot more, he always showed a lot of courage, and was a pretty good batsman.

I think it will be very interesting to see the results of this poll: so many to choose from, so there's bound to be some controversial omissions. So far it looks like Bradman and Tendulkar (unsurprisingly) will make the list easily, as will Viv Richards. Chappell also seems to be in most people's lists, though slightly lower down.

Assuming we'll have the openers poll after this one?

I suppose I ought to give a list in order then... I may well have changed my personel since the last list I wrote...

1) Bradman
2) G. Pollock
3) Viv Richards

So far so fairly clear. I exclude Hammond/Headley as their best efforts came pre-war, but feel this is slightly harsh as so did Bradman's. But you know, it's Bradman right?

Now for some controversy (excellent!)
4) Ponting
5) Tendulkar

Ha! That should get people discussing! My reasoning is that Ponting played more match-winning innings than Tendulkar. In particular I can recall quite a few Ponting knocks when he came in early, scored a hatful and Australia went on to win. Less so Tendulkar (partly because he batted lower down). This is all particularly wishy-washy and pure opinion, but in my view Ponting contributed more to Australia's dominance.

Now for some tough choices:
6) Sobers
7) G. Chappell
8) Walcot
9) Harvey

All of them were fantastic batsmen. How have I differentiated them from the above? I don't know. I believe Boycott said Sobers was the best batsman he'd ever seen, and he's seen all the above, so maybe Sobers should be higher? Boycs also rates Chappell above Ponting, but this is easily attributed to the fact he played with him. Anyway one has to make a judgement and this is mine.

10) A. Flower

I tossed up between him, Dravid, Kallis, Lara and a few others for the final place, but I've always had a soft spot for Flower, whose record is fantastic given who he played for, and that he kept wicket. One of the very few batsmen to have taken Murali apart.

I think you're reasonably justified in excluding Hammond and Headley, as they both have pretty ordinary post-war records (particularly Headley) whereas Bradman is still the best, even post-war.

A few have left Lara out which is fair enough but this does amaze me, tbh.

He may well have had a selfish streak but he was a real GREAT bat.

I personally can't even begin to contemplate a top 10 without Lara. Was always a boyhood hero of mine as he was leading Warks to countless trophies, and really is one of the finest batsmen to have played the game.

Stella wrote:A few have left Lara out which is fair enough but this does amaze me, tbh.

He may well have had a selfish streak but he was a real GREAT bat.

Hi Stella,

When we move on to openers, I may well leave out Boycott - like I did here with Lara - even though he too 'was a real GREAT bat'. Consistent or just doubly wrong?

1) Tendulkar
2) Bradman
3) Steve Waugh
4) Lara
5) Ponting
6) Mark Waugh
7) Richards
8) Pollock
9) Dravid
10) Laxman

Before considering my list, I would like to address two players.

FoF named Pietersen in his, and I'm not going to argue about this as its FoFs choice. But somthing to consider about Pietersen is the lack of a back foot game. Modern pitches have some what aided Pietersen, if he played in the 1990s, he would've been found out.

Seocnd player is Andy Flower. Yes the guy has amazing figures for a relative minnow nation, but he couldn't play short pitched bowling. Th lack of matches against South Africa and Australia, some what saved his stats.

1. Bradman
2. Tendulkar
3. Viv Richards
4. Lara
5. Greg Chappell
6. Ponting
7. Graeme Pollock
8. Headley
9. Dravid
10. Stephen Waugh

Better throw mine out there before they are counted:

1. Bradman

2. Sir Viv - A great player and I admired his ability to take the game away from the opposition in a few hours. If you asked a side who they would prefer to see come striding out to the crease, a prime Sachin or a prime Viv, I think most would prefer a prime Sachin to bowl to.

3. Sachin Tendulkar

4. Graeme Pollock

5. Ricky Ponting - he played defining innnings. Real "money" knocks when Australia occasionally had there backs to the wall. His 156 at OT in 05 is one of the best I have ever seen.

6. Jacques Kallis - Overlooked somewhat, but a great player with the bat by any stretch even without his bowling. With his bowling, it makes his batting even more impressive.

7. Ken Barrington

8. Brian Charles Lara - Simply for the exuberance. The flair, that backlift and the slash through backward point. Awesome to watch in full flow. And how could I leave out the man who has made 400* and 501*?

9. Greg Chappell

10. Rahul Dravid

That's a great list JD, wouldn't disagree too strongly with anything written there. Greggers, M Waugh is probably my favourite ever batsman, but I'd struggle to get him into a top 50 all-time middle-order players...

I just loved Mark Waugh, and his name sprung to mind for middle order batsmen

Fair enough.

Any more that haven't voted get them in today please as I'll be looking to total these soon.

Thanks.