Team Samid
| Runs | Avg | SR | Wkts | Avg | SR | Eco |
| Tendulkar | 18426 | 45 | 86 | 154 | 44 | 52 | 5.1 |
| Rohit | 9115 | 49 | 89 | | | | |
| Babar | 3359 | 54 | 87 | | | | |
| Root | 5922 | 51 | 87 | | | | |
| Flower | 6786 | 35 | 75 | | | | |
| Bevan | 6912 | 54 | 74 | | | | |
| Klusener | 3576 | 41 | 90 | 192 | 29 | 38 | 4.7 |
| Faulkner (P1+4) | 1032 | 34 | 104 | 96 | 31 | 33 | 5.5 |
| Yadav (P5) | | | | 104 | 26 | 30 | 5.1 |
| Ajmal | | | | 184 | 22 | 32 | 4.2 |
| McGrath | | | | 381 | 22 | 34 | 3.8 |
| Donald | | | | 272 | 21 | 31 | 4.1 |
Batting:
Sachin Tendulkar and
Rohit Sharma. These are the two greatest openers ever imo. Sachin for obvious reasons. Rohit because he has redefined the role of an opener. From 1995 onwards there was a shift towards opening with hard hitters that would give you rapid starts and once in a while get a really big score. Rohit could have easily continued that trend, he quite clearly has the power hitting ability. But here's where he is different from all previous openers. Firstly, he can play two roles in the same innings. Secondly, his ability to pace the innings is better than anyone else. In the first 30 overs he's an old school batsman, cautious and takes his time, realising that bowlers are at their freshest. In the final 20 overs he turns into a beast and tears apart bowlers. The perfect opener and doesn't get the recognition he deserves.
Babar Azam and
Joe Root are two effortless batsmen that would dominate the game in any era. Excellent timers and rotators of the strike. Both are great players of spin, and Babar in particular thrives on bowling friendly pitches.
Andy Flower is a gritty player, with 60 scores of 50+ in just over 200 games. The top 4 will more often than not deliver the goods so chances are the heavier hitters will come in before Flower. But still a great option to have at 5 should the top 4 have an off day.
Michael Bevan,
Lance Klusener and
James Faulkner are three sensational finishers. Bevan is top 2 finishers of all time. Despite batting down the order in those great Australian lineups, Bevan time after time found himself in a position where he had to rescue the team from tricky positions. And he was triumphant most of the times. His average of 54 is simply unheard of for a player from that era and that's a testament to his determination to remaining at the crease until the end and getting the team over the line. Bevan will be up against Wasim and Saqlain in this series, players he had the upper hand against. While other middle order batsmen crumbled against Pakistan from over 30 and onwards, Bevan thrived in those situations. His average against that great Pakistan bowling attack is a staggering 57.
While Bevan is calm and composed, and Faulkner is a devastative power hitter, Klusener is the perfect in-between. He had the ability to be both calm and devastative, depending on what the match situation required at the time. He was the player of the tournament at he World Cup 1999. Meanwhile, Faulkner has won several games from improbable positions. He has chased down 44 runs in 3 overs against India. He has also chased down 60 runs from 6 overs in a last wicket partnership vs England.
Bowling:
Glenn McGrath is the greatest ODI bowler imo. He rattled oppositions, took out their best batsmen and always delivered under pressure. Everything he did happened on his terms. Highly instrumental in all three of the World Cups he won and he even bowed out on his own terms by being named player of the tournament in 2007. A true master of psychological warfare.
The White Lightning,
Allan Donald was rapid. He had a phenomenal action and bowled with sustained aggression. Him and
Lance Klusener were outstanding at the 1999 WC, picking up 35 wickets between them in 9 games. In that tied semi, Donald broke Australia's middle order and picked up 4/32.
Saeed Ajmal and
Kuldeep Yadav with their excellent averages and strike rates will strangle the opposition in the middle overs on the spinning track. Ajmal will provide deadly wicket to wicket accuracy. Kuldeep with his unorthodox chinaman bowling and variation will offer a different test altogether. In addition,
Sachin Tendulkar will be bowling some of Klusener's overs on the spinning track. A very underrated ODI bowler who could spin the ball both ways.
James Faulkner the bowler is also fairly underrated. He's an excellent death over specialist and will bamboozle you with his many variations. He single-handedly destroyed New Zealand's powerful middle order and was named man of the match in the 2015 WC final.
Why I win:
- The best two openers in the format.
- Bevan factor. One of the greatest finishers of all time who completely neutralised Wasim and Saqlain on so many occasions.
- Two of the all time great bowlers in McGrath and Donald. The combination of deadly accuracy, pace and aggression will be too much for opposition batsmen.
- Watson is a misfit at this stage and won't last long. That exposes Kohli to McGrath and Kohli early on is suspect to any kind of movement outside of the off stump.
- There aren't enough clutch players in his late middle order. The likes of Miller aren't reliable when the going gets tough. A poor player on pitches that aren't flat.
- Big stage players. Player of the tournament in 1999, 2003 and 2007, as well as player of the final in 2015, and highest run scorer in 2019.
Team anant
| Player | Batting Average | S/R | Bowling Average | Bowling S/R | Economy | Comments |
|---|
| Hayden | 43.8 | 78.96 | | | | ICC ODI Player of the year 2007 |
| Watson | 40.54 | 90.44 | 31.79 | 38.4 | 4.95 | Batting average 45.14 as opener at S/R of 91.69 |
| Kohli | 59.33 | 93.25 | | | | 3x ODI Player of the year(highest), fastest to 8k,9k,10k,11k runs, Set to break every record held by Sachin |
| Sangakkara | 41.99 | 78.86 | | | | Among the only 3 players to have scored 1000+ runs in 4 consecutive years |
| Kallis | 44.36 | 72.89 | 31.79 | 31.79 | 4.84 | Highest difference in batting and bowling average for any player who has bowled in atleast 60 innings |
| Matthews | 41.94 | 83.32 | 33.35 | 43.2 | 4.62 | 5th highest difference in batting-bowling average among players who have scored 1000+ runs and taken 100+ wickets |
| Miller | 40.38 | 100.62 | | | | Among the 5 players who have a S/R of >100 and average >40 |
| Jadeja | 31.88 | 85.96 | 36.57 | 44.7 | 4.89 | Got Sachin run out in that Hyderabad Innings, so won't write anything positive about him |
| Kapil Dev | 23.79 | 95.07 | 27.45 | 44.2 | 3.71 | Among handful of players who averaged 20+ with bat and less than 30 with the ball |
| Akram | 16.52 | 88.33 | 23.52 | 36.2 | 3.89 | The most successful pace bowler in ODI history, MOTM in 1992 WC final |
| Narine | 11 | 82.31 | 26.46 | 38.4 | 4.12 | Among 7 spinners who have a S/R<40, Average<30 and Economy <4.5 |
| Saqlain Mushtaq | 11.85 | 49.58 | 21.78 | 30.4 | 4.29 | 2nd best average for any spinner in ODI history behind Rashid Khan |
| Boult | 9.35 | 74.64 | 25.29 | 30.1 | 5.03 | Part of ODI Team of the year on 3 occassions |
Batting
Openers
Opening the batting for me would be a left hand right hand opening combination in Watson and Hayden. Both average close to 45 as openers and can pace their innings to perfection. Watson would assume the role of attacking in the powerplay overs while Hayden will just give him support from the other end.
Middle Order and Lower Middle Order
In Kohli, Kallis and Sanga, we have close to 38k ODI runs, 85 centuries, 237 half centuries and each of them has an incredible record of scoring a 50+ score once every 2.36-3.22 games.
Depending on pitch, the lineup would vary. On flat pitch, Kallis would sit out whereas Mathews would replace Jadeja on the track meant for pacers.
Angelo Mathews would retain his place in the side except on the track meant for spinners. A player who averages 51.08 when batting at #5, and he averages a whopping 121.6 in India after playing 11 games. I’m not expecting Mathews to come in before the 35-40th over, like I said in the previous game, as he has Sanga, Kohli and maybe even Kallis coming in before him.
Next in would be David Miller, who has an incredible S/R of 100.62 and averages 40+ despite scoring at such a rate.
Considering my MO will last till 40-42nd over irrespective of the bowling attack thanks to them being technically solid players, Miller can pair up with Mathews/Jadeja and go Boom Boom in the last few overs. Even if we do lose a wicket here, at #8 will come a very capable batsman in Kapil Dev. Captained the Indian side to the unlikeliest of WC wins in 1983, Dev is the only player who had a S/R of 90+ among all players who scored 1500+ runs and played their entire career before the turn of the century.
We have Wasim Akram coming in next, who might not have fulfilled his batting potential in ODIs, but still has 6 half centuries to his name.
Narine, while not having a great ODI record, has ability to hit the boundaries required as well in the worst case scenario.
Bowling
It would be an insult to introduce the greatest fast bowler in ODI history- Wasim Akram. The player who won Man of the match in the 1992 WC final and the only pacer to reach the 500 wicket mark.
In Trent Boult we have one of the most feared ODI bowlers of this generation. A brilliant disciplined bowler who can swing the ball both ways even on the most unresponsive pitches (This bit is by cricinfo and I seriously don’t know a lot about him as I just watch WC matches here and there). He’s played a significant role in taking New Zealand to two consecutive WC finals and could have won NZ the WC as well had the English feckers not had all the luck in the world.
On the pace bowling department front, we also have Kapil Dev who was one of the most disciplined bowlers of his generation and had lethal out-swingers
If that’s not enough, we can always call Kallis – arguably the greatest allrounder in ODI history (refer comments in the table) and Watson along with Mathews as well
On the spin department front, we have Saqlain, arguably the 2nd greatest spinner in ODI history, the man who started the Doosra and the spinner with the best average in ODIs after Rashid Khan. Scoring against him has always been a task for even the greatest batsmen, and he’ll no doubt trouble Samid’s team. Additionally we also have Narine – a bowler whose economy rate is just 4.12 in times when even an economy rate of 5 is considered pretty good! He can stop the flow of runs against the finest of batsmen and force the batsmen to make mistakes under such pressure.
Lastly, we have Sir Jadeja – a player who is handy with both bat and bowl. Can score runs at a great pace and can take wickets of both opponents as well as teammates!
Why I win
Bowling Variations- We have all sorts of bowlers – left arm, right arm, guys who can swing, reverse swing, guys who possess raw pace, spinner against whom batsmen still struggle and 4 of the finest all rounders in the game to help the team out.
Now it would be unfair to not address Samid’s bowling,who does have a fair few greats in there. However, when talking about pacers, I believe I have the greatest pacer in ODI history. He does have Mcgrath and Donald as his 2 opening bowlers, but then again Boult has proven himself to be extremely dangerous as well.
How I rank them – Akram>Mcgrath>Donald>Boult – And I think the gap is minimal between Akram and Mcgrath as well as Donald and Boult. So they are pretty equal here.
For the 3rd and 4th bowler – Kapil Dev trumps Faulkner and Klusener quite comfortably. Add to that I have Kallis, Watson and Mathews who can help each other out if one of them is struggling.
Anant’s Verdict- Clear victory for Anant 8 -7.5
Openers – Ok, hands down, he has better openers, but at the same time, it would be unfair to say that my openers are a weakness. If his openers are 10, then my openers are probably 8.5-9
Anant’s Verdict- Win for Samid 10-8.5/9
Batting Discipline/ Middle Order – Even if I take into account the fact that Samid has Mcgrath and Donald we have some of the best batsmen of all time in our ranks to tackle them. I know that Kohli, Sanga, Kallis, Mathews can handle his pacers and Ajmal. However, I don’t think the same can be said of Azam, Root, Flower vs my bowlers.
I have Virat Kohli! The guy is a machine – a fitter version of Tendulkar (hate saying this btw), has mentality of Ronaldo and is arguably the greatest batsman in ODI history (or is set to go down as the greatest batsman). While I agree that his stats are better due to the era he’s playing in, the normalized numbers would be still mindblowing!
I agree that Samid has a pretty good LMO, but for them to be effective your 3-5 needs to be solid. No matter what the stats say about Azam and Root, they are just decent ODI players – who would have been averaging in early 40s or late 30s (around Inzy’s average) had they played the game 15 years ago
While his LMO is better, its the upper MO that matters more in any game, and I'm comfortably better there. Bevan and Klusener are going to be effective if they aren’t coming in before the 35th-40th over. With Flower at #5, I am cautiously optimistic of my chances here.
Anant’s Verdict- Win for Anant 9.5-8.5
Spinners – I honestly don’t think there is any competition here. Saqlain is easily the best spinner in this matchup. On the spinning track, I would also be having Jadeja and Narine to assist them. That’s 30 over of quality spin.
Anant’s Verdict- Win for Anant 10-8.5
Captain – having arguably greatest ODI captain of all time and 5 players who have won multiple WCs should definitely help with the mentality. The winning mentality in my side and the experience of big games would help my side get over the line in crunch situations – having cnuts in Kohli and Hayden will also help.
Pitch Selection –
Flat Pitch – a pitch where bowling variety matters more, how effective your bowlers are on pitches that aren’t responsive to anything as every batsman can just smack the hell out of bowlers.
The qualities of Samid’s bowlers is basically a subset of what my bowlers possess. All that + masters in reverse swing + Doosra
Spinning track – I mean, I don’t even have to get into this one. 30 overs vs Saqlain, Narine and Jadeja and remaining 20 vs Wasim and Kapil Dev. Good luck vs that.
Pacer’s paradise – This is probably the only one where the competition can be tight as the pacer’s quality is quite close
Final score – Anant wins the series 2.5-0.5
Hayden, Gilly, Kohli, Ponting, Kallis, Matthews, Miller looks so much better imo.