Hashim Amla

Fastest to 20 centuries or 5,000 runs (same parameter) is not the way to judge the best ODI player. Sure he has to be one of the best, but to call him the 'best' based on just one parameter is silly.
Opening bats also have the best chance to compile runs anyway, and giving a good paltform as an opening bat makes him the best opener in ODI

If you take all AB's stats, then all those parameters have a greater contribution to winning. Also, if you take AB since 2008 (remember Amla was overlooked earlier at a time when he was shockingly underdeveloped technically), the AB has better stats anyway.
 
ZCFOutkast said:
I agree with you, on the condition that no other batsman qualifies to be termed a great too. Batting is a problem because we all have our preferences. Given a choice my greatest top 7 would be Hayden, Sehwag, Ponting, Lara, KP, AB, Gilchrist(Akram, Warne, McGrath, Ntini). I know they would thump everyone, but statistically only Ponting&Lara qualify as greats, and I've left out other statistic greats. That's why stats are impotant. This is not like football where we hail innovators like Cruyff&Beckenbauer subjectively. This is cricket. Runs, against who, where & how consistent. On that basis Amla has no rival - past or present. We should be glad he's South African.
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Ah, your own little trolling thread. Good, now stay in here while we adults remain realistic in the other threads.
 
George Cloney said:
That isn't a South African team so you dont have to have Ntini in there. On what merit is he in there?
Ntini makes your team ahead of Pollock, Ambrose, Waqar, Donald, Hadlee, Marshall, Steyn, Walsh?
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Because I already have a tall right-arm bowler who could regularly hit 140kph and is regarded the greatest seamer, a left-arm swing bowler again regarded the best leftarmer, all I need now to complete my attack is someone who can bowl long slpells hit 148-150kph, and extract bounce. In my view Ntini complements those two better than anyone else. You're more than welcome suggest who does in your view, but the greatest problem for most teams has always been that third seamer - even the great WI, AUS&SA sides. They've had bad fits along the way.
 
OzzieCapie said:
Fastest to 20 centuries or 5,000 runs (same parameter) is not the way to judge the best ODI player. Sure he has to be one of the best, but to call him the 'best' based on just one parameter is silly.
Opening bats also have the best chance to compile runs anyway, and giving a good paltform as an opening bat makes him the best opener in ODI

If you take all AB's stats, then all those parameters have a greater contribution to winning. Also, if you take AB since 2008 (remember Amla was overlooked earlier at a time when he was shockingly underdeveloped technically), the AB has better stats anyway.
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You are still carrying on? I gave you homework to dissect the 37 games AB opened. What happened? Besides this is not about AB vs Amla. There is no comparison. Even Cricinfo articles discussing this are comparing him to Kohli only, who yielded a 30 odd match margin. I do not know how you can explain or try to justify the 70 match margin AB yielded, and my advice is don't try because I am yet to come across any lucid mind that has. Amla is the best ODI batsman. Period!
 
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FYI Ozziechappie, the likes of AB, QDK, RR, Ingram, Miller, Faf, received more patience than the "underdeveloped" Amla for all the wrong reasons so don't open an unnecessary can of worms without making like for like comparisons to qualify how one set of eyes is able to see that a certain player is "underdeveloped" yet fail to draw the same conclusion about players with lesser comparative stats. I really don't like such insensitive statements. Amla had to work very hard to be regarded fairly. If Mickey's friend was able to conclude he'd be a great at such a young age then I can't see how he was "horribly underdeveloped".
 
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ZCFOutkast said:
Because I already have a tall right-arm bowler who could regularly hit 140kph and is regarded the greatest seamer, a left-arm swing bowler again regarded the best leftarmer, all I need now to complete my attack is someone who can bowl long slpells hit 148-150kph, and extract bounce. In my view Ntini complements those two better than anyone else. You're more than welcome suggest who does in your view, but the greatest problem for most teams has always been that third seamer - even the great WI, AUS&SA sides. They've had bad fits along the way.
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You dont' need 'someone that can bowl long spells' in an ODI team.:wtf:. Ntini had very little to no real variation in his bowling. No yorkers, no slow balls, never aggressive or intimidating. He never really offered much other than making up a number.
 
George Cloney said:
You dont' need 'someone that can bowl long spells' in an ODI team.:wtf:. Ntini had very little to no real variation in his bowling. No yorkers, no slow balls, never aggressive or intimidating. He never really offered much other than making up a number.
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My apologies. I'm always in Test mode by default.

If it's ODIs then I can see Sachin, Amla, Kohli & Kallis replacing a few people.

Kallis for Ntini then. Now we have 3 swing bowlers - Wasim, McGrath&Kallis! :D

My idea with that lineup was to prove prefences have wide variations. Someone would come up with a completely different lineup (Hobbs, Lillee, Hutton, Sir Viv etc) voted on by panelists based on objective stats, but it would not beat the XI I've selected in any format of the game - Tests included. I said that because Sir Viv, Sanath&Dean Jones were selected ahead of Amla by a poor sould in our midst :) via some subjective formula. :D
 
Pegasus said:
Viv Richards is the best ODI batsmen of all time.
Hash has some way before being called a great.

Some other great ODI batsmen I can think of who changed the game are Dean Jones and Sanath Jayasuriya.
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Hes already in that league.
 
Well, I'd like to see Amla score some runs in knock out games before someone says he's a great.
Same goes for AB.
 
Pegasus said:
Well, I'd like to see Amla score some runs in knock out games before someone says he's a great.
Same goes for AB.
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Considering that we'v enever won a knockout game, you're raising the bar unbelieavbly high for our players. Must Steyn get a knockout 5-for to be considered great?
 
Getting to 20 centuries in 25 matches less than anybody else who has EVER played ODI's. I'd consider that pretty great.
 
Yet Barry Richards said Amla will never make it. Where's he now? And what records does he hold?
 
Performing under pressure.
Thats what the greats do.
 
Remember reading about it when Amla first started. He was probably alluding to his then bad technique
 
peeryus said:
Remember reading about it when Amla first started. He was probably alluding to his then bad technique
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Everybody says Amla was crap.
After he got dropped he worked hard at his game and became a different player.

Not the 1st time someone made a comeback.
 
peeryus said:
Remember reading about it when Amla first started. He was probably alluding to his then bad technique
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He probably had a point at the time - Amla had pretty horrible technique once upon a time. But he improved his technique rapidly, and it has shown in runs.

He used to have his bat 90 degrees to the right on backlift, which made it very difficult to get the ball exactly in line each and every time. He still has a bit of that, but nowhere near as extreme.
 
Pegasus said:
Everybody says Amla was crap.
After he got dropped he worked hard at his game and became a different player.

Not the 1st time someone made a comeback.
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Indeed. If Smith wasn't as important as captain, we would've probably dropped him 10 times in his career so that he can go work on his technhique.
 
Ho3n3r said:
Indeed. If Smith wasn't as important as captain, we would've probably dropped him 10 times in his career so that he can go work on his technhique.
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And his weight.
 
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