All Time Test Draft R1 - The Cat vs Raees | Raees wins 11-10

who will win a 3 match series between the two teams

  • Total voters
    23
  • Poll closed .

prath92

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Welcome to the first game of the Test Cricket Draft game between @The Cat and @Raees . These teams will be involved in 3 game series in

1. A flat track
2. A green track aiding swing
3. A slow track aiding spin

Teams

Team The Cat

David Warner
Simon Katich
Rahul Dravid
Saurav Ganguly(C)
Eddie Barlow
Ian Bell
Matt Prior(WK)
Richard Hadlee
Abdul Qadir
Jeff Thomson
Shoaib Akhtar

Team Raees

Glenn Turner
Mathew Hayden
Younis Khan
Dilip Vengsarkar
Allan Border
Shivnarine Chanderpaul
Mark Boucher
Sarfraz Nawaz
John snow*
Shane bond
Muttiah Muralitharan

* in slow pitches danish Kaneria comes in for John snow
 
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Team The Cat

D Warner
S Katich
R Dravid
S Ganguly(C)
E Barlow
I Bell
M Prior(WK)
R Hadlee
A Qadir
J Thomson
S Akhtar

In the 3rd match on the slow turner
P Ojha will replace Akhtar and also bat at 11.

I've gone for a well balanced side with the focus on an unbelievable bowling attack.

You are going to see the fastest possible two bowlers ever and when they are having a rest you will have to somehow try and keep the guy Wisden voted the 2nd best fast bowler of all time out - Richard Hadlee. Hadlee was also noted as one of the best new ball bowlers ever seen so he will share that duty with the other 2 tyros.

On top of all that you then have Abdul Qadir - the inspiration of Shane Warne and the guy that Graham Gooch described as "Qadir was even finer than Shane Warne".

'Eddie' Barlow was a superb all rounder from South Africa capable of taking wickets in any kind of conditions and averaging over 45 with the bat.

The rest of the batting is made up of class batsmen who also have a lot of mental toughness about them - you are going to need that facing all of these world class attacks that everyone will have.

The one change for the slow turning pitch is my other spinner P Ojha coming in for Akhtar.
 
Team Raees

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TACTICAL OUTLINE

For spin pitches, Kaneria comes in for Snow.

Why we can win

Huge respect for Cat's team as a whole but especially his bowling lineup which is formidable from a fast bowling perspective. Qadir also makes it an all-round unit capable of winning matches on different surfaces. Our counter to this is we have an outstanding batting lineup, full of grit, flair and endeavour and with them all pretty much averaging 45-50+... I can't see us scoring less than 250 even on a seamer friendly pitch, there is just too much consistency and tenacity in that batting lineup and even our bowlers, like Snow and Nawaz, were feisty characters who could bat abit with scores in the 80's/90's so it wouldn't collapse meekly.

In contrast, Dravid aside.. I would fancy our bowling lineup to really give his side some trouble. I can't see guys like Bell, Prior to name but a few withstanding an attack containing Murali and Bond at their peak, with support acts like Nazwaz and Snow in their pomp too. As a unit, our bowling is formidable across all surfaces and whilst my fast bowlers don't strictly fall into all time category (Bond could have had he remained injury free).. his batting lineup is simply not strong enough IMO.
 
Best of luck pal. I don't tend to get involved in these past the opening statements. You've got a decent side admittedly but I just fancy my bowlers can give us the edge on all 3 pitches backed by the mental toughness of the batsmen. I would love to actually watch this series it would never be boring. I'm backing Prior to make the difference with Bell in at least one test but over to the rest ....
 
Varun said:
Sure you want to replace shoaib with Ojha?
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Yeah on a Turner he's more than capable of taking 3 or 4 averaged 30 and the 3 fast bowlers are fast enough on any pitch. Eddie would be a secret weapon wish I wasn't on my phone or would put some vids up
 
The Cat said:
Yeah on a Turner he's more than capable of taking 3 or 4 averaged 30 and the 3 fast bowlers are fast enough on any pitch. Eddie would be a secret weapon wish I wasn't on my phone or would put some vids up
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Fair enough, your call. If I'm a batsman though, I'd rather face Ojha than Akhtar regardless of the track. His brute pace can be a handful even in dry pitches while. Ojha is just a boring plodder imo.
 
Went with The Cat. I really like that bowling line up, Hadlee and Thommo is a killer combination bordering on unplayable. On the other hand the presence of Dravid and Ganguly negates a lot of the threat Murali can pose, especially the latter who found it really easy to play him.
 
Moby said:
Went with The Cat. I really like that bowling line up, Hadlee and Thommo is a killer combination bordering on unplayable. On the other hand the presence of Dravid and Ganguly negates a lot of the threat Murali can pose, especially the latter who found it really easy to play him.
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Not really, Dravid got out to Murali 6 times. Not saying he wouldn't be difficult but he isn't what I'd consider impervious to Murali threat.

Think you're underestimating just how difficult the likes of Bell, Prior warner and Katich will have it against world class bowlers like Bond, Snow and Nawaz who are not Hadlee but seriously competent elite level bowlers in their own right.

I'd always back an elite batting threat to score more against elite bowlers than a average batting lineup against a world class but not quite elite bowling lineup.

Plus let's not forget Murali and Kaneria as a spin duo - fearsome combo to face on turner.
 
Sarfraz Nawaz
John snow*
Shane bond
Muttiah Muralitharan

Just doesn't cut it for me.

Muli excepted but I just think our bowling attack wins every match.
 
Think Raees batting is stronger that Cat.. But that bowling line up of Cat is just awesome..

@The Cat Drop Ohja man.. He actually played for a long time in my local Ranji side and was crap.. Rather have Akhtar in with Qadir..
 
I'd never drop Akhtar, he's criminally underrated with an average of 25 and S/R in the 40s post 2000! Jeff Thompson was vastly overrated, though I think he'd have struggled post 2000 against batsmen who are armoured like samurais batting on flat decks. That said I'd go for The Cat, bowlers win you test series.
 
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KM said:
He was brilliant with the reverse swing and in Asian conditions, reverse swing is a big factor.
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Who better than the master and founder of reverse swing.. Nawaz!





 
John Snow





Shane Bond



Dilip Vengsarkar



Danesh Kaneria



 
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Spoony said:
The batsmen aren't wearing any protection.
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That's not gonna help too much against Thommo in his pomp I don't believe.

Look at how rattled the English batsmen get against recent inferior bowling - I'd still be crapping myself wearing a suit of armor :)
 
@The Cat - we all know how good your bowling attack is, no one has questioned that including me. My videos are designed to make people aware that my bowling attack isn't too shabby either and definitely IMO too hot to handle for the quality of your batting lineup, Bell was struggling against Kaneria let alone handling Murali and the rest of my pace attack which includes one of New Zealands, Paktstans and Englands All time greats.
 
Think this is based on players just at their peak - Thomson circa 74-76 would never have gone for 30 as a regular average.
 
Raees said:
@The Cat - we all know how good your bowling attack is, no one has questioned that including me. My videos are designed to make people aware that my bowling attack isn't too shabby either and definitely IMO too hot to handle for the quality of your batting lineup, Bell was struggling against Kaneria let alone handling Murali and the rest of my pace attack which includes one of New Zealands, Paktstans and Englands All time greats.
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Katich averages over 50 as an opener, Warner is a fraction under, Dravid speaks for himself as does Ganguly. Barlow averaged 45 as an allrounder and Bell averaged 60 as a number 6.

Prior averaged 40 and you've then got Hadlee who averaged 27 from number 8.

I don't think your bowlers are too hot to handle sorry - this is where I believe we win with the advantage we have.
 
The Cat said:
Think this is based on players just at their peak - Thomson circa 74-76 would never have gone for 30 as a regular average.
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He averaged over 30 in 1974. In fact in the 70s he averaged 22, 30, 25, 25 and 28. It's probable that he'd have gone 30+... unlike some other bowlers he was pretty one dimensional.
 
I've got to go out now - get some stuff done before the derby later.

Best of luck Raees it's an interesting matchup.
 
The Cat said:
I've got to go out now - get some stuff done before the derby later.

Best of luck Raees it's an interesting matchup.
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And you mate - won't add anything more in your absence.
 
Spoony said:
He averaged over 30 in 1974. In fact in the 70s he averaged 22, 30, 25, 25 and 28. It's probable that he'd have gone 30+... unlike some other bowlers he was pretty one dimensional.
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His job is to attack the other end with the miserly Hadlee pinning batsmen into submission from the other and he's a pretty good foil for that.
 
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