The ultimate job of a bowler is to take wickets, and thus the most important stat when looking at bowlers is there strike rate-ie how many balls it takes them on ave to take a wkt. As long as averages are not too bad (max 27 for a fast man, and 30 for a spinner)-a bowler with a good S/R can be considered a class act. Obviously this must involve a faoir number of test wickets-most analyst giving the figure of 50 as a bench mark.
Once stats wizard works I’ll provide a list of all S/R for bowlers with over 50 test wickets, from the post WW2 era.
Here are leading strike rate bowlers post WWII.
With 50 matches or above.
Name Mat Balls M R W Ave Best 5 10 SR Econ Team
**Waqar Younis** 80 15223 485 8158 355 22.98 7-76 22 5 42.8 3.21 PAK
MD Marshall 81 17584 613 7876 376 20.94 7-22 22 4 46.7 2.68 WI
AA Donald 72 15519 661 7344 330 22.25 8-71 20 3 47.0 2.83 RSA
FS Trueman 67 15178 522 6625 307 21.57 8-31 17 3 49.4 2.61 ENG
D Gough 56 11503 360 6288 228 27.57 6-42 9 - 50.4 3.27 ENG
RJ Hadlee 86 21918 809 9612 431 22.30 9-52 36 9 50.8 2.63 NZ
J Garner 58 13175 576 5433 259 20.97 6-56 7 - 50.8 2.47 WI
MA Holding 60 12680 459 5898 249 23.68 8-92 13 2 50.9 2.79 WI
GD McGrath 84 20149 991 8524 389 21.91 8-38 23 3 51.7 2.53 AUS
DK Lillee 70 18467 652 8493 355 23.92 7-83 23 7 52.0 2.75 AUS
JR Thomson 51 10535 301 5602 200 28.01 6-46 8 - 52.6 3.19 AUS
CL Cairns 55 10445 383 5675 197 28.80 7-27 12 1 53.0 3.25 NZ
RGD Willis 90 17357 554 8190 325 25.20 8-43 16 - 53.4 2.83 ENG
**Imran Khan** 88 19458 727 8258 362 22.81 8-58 23 6 53.7 2.54 PAK
SM Pollock 63 14145 730 5409 261 20.72 7-87 14 1 54.1 2.29 RSA
And look at who is on top.
One and only Waqar Younis! :k: :k:
Most of the bowlers in the list played after 70s, only because players before didn’t play any test matches.
Surprised to see Wasim Akram’s name not be on the list.
And what about Murali, Courntey Walsh or Shane Warne, or Kapil Dev, all have gone over 400 wickets.
Guess it shows you the true bowler, that Waqar is better than those other record breakers.
True indeed, Waqar is the greatest wicket taker of alltime-but that doesnt automatically equate to the greatest bowler. Although obviously he'd rank awesomely high here too. I recently ran a Wisden Wizard thing for his record from 96-current, and found that he's still taking wickets every 48 balls-and thats at his worst!
He's an alltime great.
The reference to 50 was to wkts-ie guys with 50 test wickets or more-Waqar still comes out tops. Most experts allow one to judge a bowler after 20~ tests, 25 by all accounts. Brett Lee and Shoaib Akhtar both make the list in the top 10-watch out for these two.
Akram makes the cut on some isues, he's at 54 bpw with Ambrose and others-if we raise the limit to say 200 test wickets or more-it will be very interesting. That also allows us to make allowances for the likes of Lee and Akhtar in the future-they could fall off as well as improve.
Waqar was an awesome strike bowler wid da majority of his wickets being bowled or lbw's. Now hes an ordinary bowler whos record is getting worse by the day. He goes for far too many runs and hes a liability on the field. He used 2 get 5 wickets in an innings every other game once upon a time now in da last 5 yrs hes only got a 5 wicket haul against Bangladesh twice. Blv me fellows he will cost Pak da WC just like he did in 96. He needs to b replaced, HE MUST B REPLACED!!!
[QUOTE]
*Originally posted by asifkm: *
Waqar was an awesome strike bowler wid da majority of his wickets being bowled or lbw's. Now hes an ordinary bowler whos record is getting worse by the day. He goes for far too many runs and hes a liability on the field. He used 2 get 5 wickets in an innings every other game once upon a time now in da last 5 yrs hes only got a 5 wicket haul against Bangladesh twice. Blv me fellows he will cost Pak da WC just like he did in 96. He needs to b replaced, HE MUST B REPLACED!!!
[/QUOTE]
if u r saying that he got two 5 wkt hauls in last 5 years....
then u r wrong....
i dont know about tests (if thats what u r talking about) but in ODI's in the last one year he has 5 wkts, 6 kwts and even 7 wkts (which cud have been 8 or 9 if he had continue bowling) in an inning....
Waqar's ODI from last year....
O M R W Econ ------
6 0 31 2 5.17 2 * W NW Series 1 v Eng in Eng 2001 at Birmingham (d/n) [1719]
7 0 41 0 5.86 2 * L NW Series 2 v Aus in Eng 2001 at Cardiff [1720]
10 2 20 2 2.00 2 * W NW Series 4 v Eng in Eng 2001 at Lord's [1722]
10 0 36 7 3.60 1 * W NW Series 7 v Eng in Eng 2001 at Leeds [1724]
8 0 59 6 7.38 2 * W NW Series 8 v Aus in Eng 2001 at Nottingham (d/n) [1725]
5 0 32 0 6.40 2 * L NW Series F v Aus in Eng 2001 at Lord's [1728]
6 0 28 0 4.67 2 * L Champions 2 v SL in UAE 2001/02 at Sharjah (d/n) [1767]
5 0 20 1 4.00 2 * W Champions 3 v Zim in UAE 2001/02 at Sharjah (d/n) [1768]
9.2 1 41 3 4.39 2 * W Champions 5 v Zim in UAE 2001/02 at Sharjah (d/n) [1770]
10 0 51 2 5.10 1 * W Champions 6 v SL in UAE 2001/02 at Sharjah (d/n) [1771]
8.2 1 31 3 3.72 1 * W Champions F v SL in UAE 2001/02 at Sharjah (d/n) [1772]
10 2 33 0 3.30 2 * W 1st ODI v BD in BD 2001/02 at Chittagong [1790]
6 2 10 0 1.67 2 * W 2nd ODI v BD in BD 2001/02 at Dhaka (d/n) [1793]
9 2 51 1 5.67 1 * W 3rd ODI v BD in BD 2001/02 at Dhaka (d/n) [1794]
8 1 37 1 4.62 1 * W 1st ODI v WI in UAE 2001/02 at Sharjah (d/n) [1807]
7 0 40 2 5.71 2 * W 2nd ODI v WI in UAE 2001/02 at Sharjah (d/n) [1808]
8 1 47 2 5.88 1 * L 3rd ODI v WI in UAE 2001/02 at Sharjah (d/n) [1810]
9 0 49 1 5.44 1 * L Sharjah C 1 v SL in UAE 2001/02 at Sharjah (d/n) [1825]
10 0 43 3 4.30 2 * W Sharjah C 3 v NZ in UAE 2001/02 at Sharjah (d/n) [1828]
9 0 49 2 5.44 1 * L Sharjah C 4 v SL in UAE 2001/02 at Sharjah (d/n) [1829]
9 0 46 0 5.11 1 * W Sharjah C 6 v NZ in UAE 2001/02 at Sharjah (d/n) [1831]
6.5 0 33 3 4.83 2 * W Sharjah C F v SL in UAE 2001/02 at Sharjah (d/n) [1832]
6 0 32 1 5.33 2 * W 1st ODI v NZ in Pak 2002 at Karachi (d/n) [1833]
10 1 45 2 4.50 1 * W 2nd ODI v NZ in Pak 2002 at Rawalpindi (d/n) [1834]
5 1 22 1 4.40 2 * W 3rd ODI v NZ in Pak 2002 at Lahore (d/n) [1835]
5 0 31 0 6.20 2 * L 1st ODI v Aus in Aus 2002 at Melbourne (CS) (d/n) [1842]
10 1 35 0 3.50 1 * W 2nd ODI v Aus in Aus 2002 at Melbourne (CS) (d/n) [1844]
8 0 41 1 5.12 2 * W 3rd ODI v Aus in Aus 2002 at Brisbane (d/n) [1846]
10 0 38 5 3.80 1 * L Morocco C 1 v SA in 2002 at Tangier [1860]
10 0 77 1 7.70 2 * W Morocco C 2 v SL in 2002 at Tangier [1861]
9 2 43 3 4.78 1 * L Morocco C 4 v SL in 2002 at Tangier [1863]
10 0 48 2 4.80 1 * L Morocco C 5 v SA in 2002 at Tangier [1864]
7 1 29 1 4.14 1 * W PSO Tri 1 v Ken in Ken 2002/03 at Nairobi (Gym) [1867]
10 0 60 1 6.00 1 * L PSO Tri 2 v Aus in Ken 2002/03 at Nairobi (Gym) [1868]
6 0 31 2 5.17 1 * W PSO Tri 3 v Ken in Ken 2002/03 at Nairobi (Gym) [1869]
4 0 26 1 6.50 2 * L PSO Tri 5 v Aus in Ken 2002/03 at Nairobi (Gym) [1871]
4.3 0 31 0 6.89 2 * N PSO Tri F v Aus in Ken 2002/03 at Nairobi (Gym) [1873]
His performance has fallen by comparison to his earlier works, but he's still got a S/R-of 48 from 96-today! That means at his worst he is still the 5th most successful strike bowler ever-his overall stats put him at 1!
He is a wonderful match winner. You clearly know nothing about this game!