Cricket Talk

I have been watching cricket since 1990-91, and as a result this list of my favorite bowlers will be restricted to cricketers I have seen bowl. The list is in no particular order.

-->Anil Kumble---Never been a big turner of the ball. But for sheer perseverance, patience, discipline and intelligence, he has to be one of my favorites. I somehow think this is how his bowling career shaped. Initially he was played as a spinner, he surprised the batsman with his speed, they played him as a medium pacer, he surprised them with his bounce, he was picked as a quicker spinner with some bounce, he developed a googly which spun. Now when his leg spinners never turned, he has developed a leg spinner that turns a lot, and different kinds of googlies. I cannot think of a more disciplined bowler than this man. I remember in a match against Pakistan, Shahid Afridi hit hom for 20 runs in an over, our man comes the next over and pitches the bowl in the same spot and gets him. Unbelievable. A bowling machine, India's biggest match winner. Hope we get another bowler like him.

--> Shane Warne---5 reasons I like Warne
1) His first Ashes bowl to Mike Gatting at Old Trafford, which turned a mile from outside the leg stump to take the top of off-stump.
2) Bowling Basit Ali around the legs in Bellerive Oval, Hobart of the last ball of the day
3) Wicket of Andrew Strauss in Headingley
4) Bowling performance in WC 1999 semi-final and finals
5) Comes back with a bang everytime you put him down.

Only glitch in his otherwise shining career is his performance against India. The biggest turner of the ball with a clean action. And easily the best spinner I have seen.

--> Allan Donald: I love him for his attitude, never say die. When SA made a comeback to cricket he epitomised the spirit, to prove it to the world of cricket what they missed out on. He was a bowler who bowled with spirit a pace of 140+ come what may, with swing, with zeal, with a lot of movement. And when he had the crowd going behind him, he bowled on a different plane. I hated him for getting Sachin out so many times though

--> Waqar Younis: Here, I talk about the Waqar Younis of early 1990's. And what a deadly bowler was he then. He would change the course of the match in a couple of overs. He was the fastest bowler around when I had started watching cricket. Bowled yorkers with such venom that batsman had to wear extra padding near their toes to play him. I remember him running through sides when it started reverse swinging. Ian Chappell once said,"Ajit Agarkar is so good with reverse swing but doesn't take wickets. Waqar at his peak bowled 5 inswingers and suddenly an outswinger, and got all his wickets. Whereas Agarkar tries too many things and hence is not so successful." A method behind the madness as they say

--> Curtley Ambrose: Deadly with the new ball, deadly with the older ball, almost impossible to score off, and a man who took wickets in heaps. A spell of 7-1 speaks volumes about this guy. On a pitch conducive, he would bowl out teams for below 100 all alone, and this has happened more than once. Again never played in India sadly.