Tag: George Lohmann

All Time XIs – G for Glory

An all time XI of players whose given names begin with G, a massive honourable mentions section which includes mention of today’s WBBL Challenger match, and a photo gallery.

Today I choose an all time XI of players whose given names begin with Gs. This letter poses particular challenges which I will explain in the course of the post, and there are a vast number of honourable mentions.

THE XI IN BATTING ORDER

  1. *Graeme Smith (South Africa, left handed opening batter, captain). A superb playing record and an outstanding captain.
  2. Gordon Greenidge (West Indies, right handed opening batter). One half of the West Indies greatest ever opening pair. His highlights include twin tons on the most difficult surface of the 1976 series, two contrasting double centuries against England in 1984, one a brutal match winning knock at Lord’s after England had the temerity to declare their second innings closed on the final morning (and some reckoned they should have done so earlier), and the other a ten hour marathon innings which put his side fully in control of the match at Old Trafford.
  3. George Headley (West Indies, right handed batter). Nicknamed ‘Atlas’ because he seemed to carry his side on his shoulders, he is among the select few to have played over 20 test matches and have an average of above 60 – 60.83.
  4. Graeme Pollock (South Africa, left handed batter). Another member of the select club referred to above. In what proved to be South Africa’s last series before isolation he set an individual scoring record for that country with 274 against Australia. That score has been beaten by four players since South Africa’s readmission – Daryll Cullinan, Gary Kirsten, Graeme Smith and Hashim Amla.
  5. Greg Chappell (Australia, right handed batter, occasional medium pacer, occasional leg spinner). A superb batter, one of the safest slip fielders the game ever saw and a part time bowler of two types.
  6. Garry Sobers (West Indies, left handed batter, left arm bowler of every type known to cricket). The most complete player the game has ever seen, and therefore, as always when he is eligible for selection, the first name on the team sheet for this XI.
  7. Gilbert Jessop (England, right handed batter, right arm fast bowler). The ultimate X-factor player, with an approach to batting ideally suited to someone coming at number seven in a strong side.
  8. +George Duckworth (England, wicket keeper, right handed batter). A great wicket keeper, and in a side with the batting guns possessed by this one I am not worried about his limited skill in the latter department.
  9. George Lohmann (England, right arm medium fast bowler, right handed batter). Of bowlers to have taken at least 100 wickets he has the best average by some way, a barely believable 10.75, and also the best strike rate – a wicket every five and a half overs on average.
  10. George Dennett (Gloucestershire, left arm orthodox spinner, left handed batter). Never capped for England, but 2,151 FC scalps at 19.82 a piece. England were exceptionally well served by left arm spinners in his playing days – Rhodes, Blythe, the all round skills of Frank Woolley and Roy Kilner etc.
  11. Glenn McGrath (Australia, right arm fast bowler, right handed batter). We have our ‘enforcer’, one of the greatest of all time.

This side has a stellar top six, including the most complete player the game has ever known, the ultimate in x-factor players at number seven, a great keeper and three great specialist bowlers. The bowling does not have quite the dazzling array of options possessed by some of my sides, but I do not think that McGrath, Lohmann, Dennett, Jessop and Sobers would be likely to find capturing 20 opposition wickets beyond them on any surface.

HONOURABLE MENTIONS

This will require a systematic approach, so I shall work my way down the order…

OPENING BATTERS

Glenn Turner, the only New Zealander ever to score 100 first class hundreds is the biggest miss here, but Gautam Gambhir of India would also have his advocates, Gary Kirsten of South Africa deserves a mention (and can have the head coach job that England infamously refused to give him allegedly because his power point presentation wasn’t good enough) and George Gunn, who played for England many years ago, and absolutely did things his way also deserves a name check.

MIDDLE ORDER BATTERS

These guys missed out because of the stellar cast available to fill these slots. Geoff Howarth of New Zealand, Gundappa Viswanath of India and Gilbert Parkhouse of England would all have merited serious consideration for a letter less well stocked with world beating batters, but none can get in here.

ALL ROUNDERS

The presence of five of the greatest ever specialist batters and Sobers limited the scope for the inclusion of all rounders. Luminaries such as George Giffen (Australia, right handed batter, off spinner), George Hirst (England, right handed batter, left arm fast medium) and two leg spinning all rounders, Greville Stevens (England) and Garnet Lee (Nottinghamshire, Derbyshire) all missed out. Had I been picking with limited overs in mind Glenn Maxwell of Australia would have been one of the first names on the team sheet, but I preferred Jessop at seven, and the only one of the top six who I could even have contemplated not picking was Greg Chappell. George Pope of Derbyshire and England was a good enough all rounder to merit a mention as well. George Ulyett, who played for England in their very early days and had an HS of 149 and a BB of 7-36 was also unlucky.

WICKET KEEPERS

Godfrey Evans was the nearest challenger to Duckworth, wkith Graham Manou, a fine keeper who was scurvily treated by the Aussie selectors of his day and Gil Langley of Australia also in the mix.

SPIN BOWLERS

George Simpson-Hayward, the last underarm bowler to make a serious impression at test level (over 20 wickets in his only test series, against South Africa in South Africa) was close to dislodging Dennett. George Macaulay of Yorkshire and England never managed much at test level.

PACE BOWLERS

It is in this category that we meet the greatest number of top cricketers to miss out for this letter. Garth Le Roux, the giant South African quick of the 1970s and 80s never got to play test cricket, otherwise he might well have had a slot. Graham McKenzie, the best Aussie pacer between the retirement of Davidson and the rise of Lillee was also close. George John was rated by CLR James as the finest of the early West Indian fast bowlers, but he was finished before they started playing test cricket. Gideon Elliott who had a very brief but freakishly successful fast bowling career in the late 1850s and early 1860s (48 wickets at less than 5 a piece, including innings figures of 9-2) deserves a mention. George “Tear ’em” Tarrant was a hugely successful fast bowler in the era immediately before the rise of WG Grace, but the way the good Doctor quelled those who before he came along had intimidated by dint of sheer pace on often treacherous pitches explains why I overlooked him. Had I not had Sobers to perform the role, two candidates for the role of left arm pacer would have been Gary Gilmour (Australia) and a gamble on George Garton, yet to establish himself as an England player. George Freeman, whose 288 FC scalps came at less than 10 a piece was another in the mix. George Geary might have had the slot I gave to Lohmann, but my feeling is that the difference between their test records is too great to be put down solely to the flat pitches on which Geary had to operate at that level. Glenn Chapple of Lancashire is a what might have been – injuries prevented him from gaining international recognition, and as fine a player as he was in domestic cricket I cannot justify dropping either Lohmann or the other Glenn to make way for him.

THE WOMEN

I was not able to include a female in this XI, but the Challenger in the Women’s BBL took place today, and Grace Harris with a superb innings, Georgia Redmayne with a great display of wicket keeping, and Georgia Voll with a stellar bowling performance all had big days out in a superb win for Brisbane Heat over Perth Scorchers, while Georgia Adams, a spin bowling all rounder, is also making a name for herself. Of the players I have named the most likely to earn a place in this squad in years to come is Redmayne, who if she continues to keep the way she did today could challenge Duckworth.

EXEAT

I have doubtless missed some of the riches available for this XI, though I do remind people wishing to comment that I have declared a policy of not selecting anyone who made rebel tours of Apartheid South Africa. Please feel free to make suggestions, so long as you examine the effect they would have on the balance of the side. With five batters and a batting all rounder having ironclad cases for inclusion fitting in enough bowling is a challenge for this letter.

PHOTOGRAPHS

My usual sign off…

All Time XIs – Match Ups 46

Continuing my extended analysis of how the all time XIs I selected for each letter of the alphabet fare against one another.

Welcome to the latest instalment in my extended analysis of how the all time XIs I selected for each letter of the alphabet fare against one another. The Ls are in the spotlight and have so far accrued 60 of a possible 80 points.

THE Ls V THE Rs

The Rs have the better opening pair (Lawry outranks Rogers but Richards absolutely blows Labuschagne out of the water, especially given that the latter is batting out of position). Lara shades the number three slot, but Root handsomely wins the number four slot. The number five slot looks a big win for Lloyd, but appearances are a bit deceptive – Ranji played on much more difficult batting surfaces than Lloyd. Langridge comfortably wins the battle of the spin bowling all rounders over Robins, but Russell totally bosses the keeping match up. The Ls win the pace/ seam element of this match up, Lohmann being the deciding factor there. They also win the spin bowling element – Laker outranking Robins by more than Rhodes outranks Langridge in the battle of the left armers. I think the Ls bowling settles this one in their favour and I make it a comfortable win: Ls 4, Rs 1.

THE Ls V THE Ss

The Ss have the better opening pair – Lawry outranks Strauss, but by far less than Sutcliffe outranks Labuschagne. Lara wins the battle of the number threes, but Smith comfortably outranks Laxman and Sangakkara outranks Lloyd, though the Ls do have the better keeper. Sobers massively outbats Langridge, but Langridge was the finer left arm orthodox spinner, and similarly Laker’s off spin is more valuable than Sobers’ left arm wrist spin. Stokes is the bonus the Ss get for having Sangakkara as keeper. The Ss win the pace/seam bowling – Starc’s left arm gives them extra variation among the three front liners, and Stokes and Sobers in his quicker incarnations lend them extra depth as well. The Ls win the spin bowling. I think the Ss have got this but not by a huge margin: Ls 2, Ss 3

THE Ls V THE Ts

I give the Ts the better opening pair – Trumper was a regular opener and he scored his runs on uncovered, often treacherous pitches, which I think comfortably makes up both the discrepancy between his and Labuschagne’s averages and for Lawry’s advantage over Taylor. Lara comfortably wins the batting match up at number three, but Tarrant outranks Langridge as a bowler. Tendulkar bosses the number four slot, and while Lloyd had a somewhat better test average than Thorpe, the Englishman had a lot less support from the rest of the order than the West Indian. Ross Taylor outbats James Langridge at six. The Ts comfortably win the battle of the keepers. The pace bowling is hard to call – the Ts are quicker, but the Ls are probably better. Trumble and Laker are about equal, so with Tarrant outpointing Langridge as a bowler the Ts win the spin bowling department. I think the Ts superior batting and spin bowling wins it for them, but it is close: Ls 2, Ts 3.

THE Ls V THE Us

The Ls boss the batting – only Inzamam Ul-Haq, Umrigar and Umar Akmal win their match ups in that department. The Ls win the keeping contest hands down, and massively outrank the Us in pace/ seam bowling as well. Underwood outranks Langridge, and at the moment, though subject to change as more evidence comes in from Ur Rahman, Laker massively outranks Ur Rahman as an off spinner. It is hard to see the Us claiming anything from this contest: Ls 5, Us 0.

THE Ls V THE Vs

The Ls have a significant advantage with the bat, with only Verreynne and Vaas winning their match ups in that department for the Vs. Langley outranks Verreynne as keeper. The pace/seam bowling contest is close – the Vs have two left armers in Vaas and Voce, the former of whom would fare better as part of this attack than he did IRL to counter the Ls superior overall figures. Verity hugely outranks Langridge – he was the reason the latter only go the test call up quite late in his career, though Laker just outranks Vogler, giving the Vs the advantage in spin bowling. I think the Ls being ahead in batting and at least level on seam/ pace bowling is enough for a comfortable win for them, but I will grant the Vs spinners (particularly Verity) one big day out: Ls 4, Vs 1.

THE Ls PROGRESS REPORT

The Ls have scored 17 out of 25 today, moving them up to 77 out of 105, 73.33% overall.

PHOTOGRAPHS

All Time XIs – Match Ups 35

Continuing my extended analysis of how the all time XIs I picked for each letter of the alphabet fare against one another.

Welcome to the latest instalment in my extended analysis of how the all time XIs I selected for each letter of the alphabet fare against one another. Today sees the last two match ups involving the Hs, who come into today with 70 of a possible 115 points, and also the first three match ups of the Is period in the spotlight, which they come into with 2.5 of a possible 40 points banked.

THE Hs V THE Ys

The Hs dominate the batting, have the better new ball pairing, the better keeper and the better spin combination. Norman Yardley perhaps rates as a somewhat better third seamer than Hammond but even that is debatable. The Ys have no chance here: Hs 5 Ys 0.

THE Hs V THE Zs

The Hs have the Zs beaten in all departments. Hs 5, Zs 0.

THE Hs FINAL SCORE

The Hs finish with 80 of a possible 125 points, a score of 64%.

THE Is V THE Js

The Js have a strong superiority in batting, an overwhelming advantage in pace bowling, and they lose only tiny amount of ground in spin bowling, and also have the better keeper. The Is are miles adrift and I score this Is 0, Js 5.

THE Is V THE Ks

This is even more conclusive in the Ks favour. My scoring system limits margins of victory to 5-0, so I score this Is 0, Ks 5 and note that the Is are lucky to get 0.

THE Is V THE Ls

The Ls have an overwhelming advantage in both batting and pace/ seam bowling, the better keeper, the better captain, and while James Langridge rates below Ironmonger as a left arm spinner, Jim Laker comfortably outranks Illingworth as an off spinner. Only one scoreline is possible: Is 0, Ls 5.

THE Is PROGRESS REPORT

The Is have not added a single point to their tally and are now on 2.5 points out of a possible 55, 4.55%.

PHOTOGRAPHS

My usual sign off…

All Time XIs – Match Ups 32

Continuing my extended analysis of how the all time XIs I selected for each letter of the alphabet fare against each other.

Welcome to the latest instalment in my extended analysis of how the all time XIs I selected for each letter of the alphabet fare against one another. Today the Hs occupy the spotlight and they have 25 of a possible 40 points so far.

THE Hs V THE Js

The Hs as usual boss the batting. Jackson outranks fellow Yorkie Hutton as a skipper. The keeping match up is a close one, the Js have the better seam/ pace attack, but the Hs have the better spin attack. I think the Hs have enough to win this one, but it is by no means conclusive: Hs 3, Js 2.

THE Hs V THE Ks

The Hs are well ahead in batting – only Kallis in the top six wins a batting match up for the Ks. The battle of the keepers is close, I Khan outranks Hutton as a skipper. The Ks have much the better pace attack, with their fourth seamer, Kallis, outranking Hammond as a bowler. As against that the Hs spin attack is better balanced. I think the Ks have this and score it: Hs 2, Ks 3.

THE Hs V THE Ls

The Hs win the batting and keeping elements of this match up, but lose on captaincy, pace bowling and off spin (sorry, Harmer fans, I cannot rank him as even Laker’s equal in that department). Langridge is outranked as a left arm spinner by Herath. I think the Ls bowling is settling this one and I see them winning comfortably: Hs 1, Ls 4

THE Hs V THE Ms

The Hs have the better batting, the keeping situation is a clash of titans, the Ms absolutely boss the pace bowling, and Murali is the best individual spinner in the contest. While Macartney, the Ms sixth bowler, is not on a par with Herath, Mahmood’s facility with the leg cutter somewhat closes that gulf. Ms are winning this comfortably: Hs 1, Ms 4.

THE Hs V THE Ns

The Hs as usual dominate the batting, though Noble outranks Hutton as a skipper. The Ns have a numerical superiority in the seam department, but none of their seamers are a match for either Holding or Hadlee. Harmer clearly outranks Noble as a bowler, and Herath is even further clear of Nadeem, giving the Hs a huge advantage in spin bowling. The Hs are winning this one comfortably – Hs 4, Ns 1.

THE Hs PROGRESS UPDATE

The Hs have scored 11 of a possible 25 points today, moving on to 36 out of a possible 65, 55.38% at the moment.

PHOTOGRAPHS

My usual sign off…

All Time XIs – Through the Alphabet IX

The ninth ‘alphabetic progression’ post in my all time XIs series.

INTRODUCTION

Welcome to the today’s all time XI cricket post. We continue the alphabetic progression, with today’s starting point being U.

JOE VINE’S XI

  1. George Ulyett – right handed opening batter, right arm fast bowler. He opened the batting for England on occasions, including in the 1882 match that inaugurated the Ashes.
  2. *Joe Vine – right handed opening batter, leg spinner, captain. A stalwart for Sussex for many years. It was considered unthinkable for a professional to captain a county side in his day, but in keeping with my thinking about slow bowling all rounders I have given him the job in this XI.
  3. Everton Weekes – right handed batter. Of West Indians who have played at least 20 test matches only one, George Headley, with an average of 60.83 has a better batting average than Weekes’ 58.61 per innings. He holds the record for most consecutive test centuries, with five. He once started a tour of India by scoring centuries in his five innings in that country.
  4. Xenophon Balaskas – right handed batter, leg spinner. No 4 is high in the order for him, but X is a very difficult letter to fill.
  5. Michael Yardy – left handed batter, occasional left arm spinner. A solid batter whose bowling was almost exclusively deployed in limited overs matches where he was fairly economical though never a big wicket taker. He played a few games for England in limited overs formats.
  6. Bas Zuiderent – right handed batter. The dashing Dutchman gets another outing in this team.
  7. +Les Ames – wicket keeper, right handed batter. A fabulous keeper batter.
  8. Ian Bishop – right arm fast bowler. At one time he seemed set to be a world beater, but he was plagued by injuries (an early warning that the West Indian fast bowling production line was drying up – the greats of the 1970s and 80s were apparently only vulnerable to kryptonite) which prevented him from really scaling the heights. He once helped the West Indies to reach almost 200 after being 29-5, supporting Gus Logie in an important late partnership. He is now a commentator on the game.
  9. Dean Cosker – left arm orthodox spinner. He did not quite make the grade, paying rather too much for his wickets.
  10. Mark Davies – right arm medium fast bowler. Took his wickets at 22 a piece in first class cricket when his body allowed him to play – it was that latter caveat that prevented him from playing for England.
  11. Hans Ebeling – right arm fast medium bowler. He played for Australia in the 1930s, and had a fine record in Shield cricket. However, his greatest contribution to cricket history was being the person who came up with the idea of the Centenary Test Match, which took place at Melbourne in March 1977, precisely 100 years after the first ever test match had taken place. Over 200 former Ashes players attended the match, and since it was a one-off match and not part of a series England skipper Brearley decreed that his team would make every effort to chase down the outlandish target of 463 that they were set to win. With Derek Randall making a test best 174 and various others also batting well England reached 417, meaning that the game finished in a victory for Australia by 45 runs, precisely the same as the outcome of the inaugural test match. In Australia’s second innings Rodney Marsh became the first Aussie keeper to reach three figures in a test match, six years after Bill ‘Phant’ Lawry had declared with him on 92. The success of this game, and the exact duplication of the margin from 100 years previously had one writer suggesting that the instigator, Ebeling, should really have been named Hans Andersen Ebeling, not just Hans Ebeling.

This team has a respectable top six, several of whom are also genuine bowlers, a great keeper batter at seven and four fine bowlers. Bishop, Ebeling, Davies and Ulyett make for a good seam attack, while Cosker, Balaskas and Vine are a handy trio of spinners.

IMRAN KHAN’S XI

  1. Roy Fredericks – left handed opening batter. Gordon Greenidge’s first opening partner at test level, before the emergence of Desmond Haynes. The first player other than Dennis Amiss (who scored the first two such innings) to rack up a century in a one day international. After his playing days were done he went into politics became Sports Minister in the government of Guyana.
  2. Sunil Gavaskar – right handed opening batter. The first player to amass 10,000 test match runs, the first batter to score as many 30 test centuries (34 in total). His 221 at The Oval in 1979 helped his team to come very close to chasing down 438 for victory (they lost their way in the closing stages and finished on 429-8, having been 366-1 at one point). 13 of his 34 test centuries came against the West Indies.
  3. Walter Hammond – right handed batter, right arm medium fast bowler, occasional off spinner, excellent fielder. He dominated the 1928-9 Ashes, won 4-1 by England, scoring 905 runs in the five tests at 113.125 an innings, and in matches 2,3 and 4 of the series he had 251 at Sydney, 200 in the first innings at Melbourne and 119 and 177 not out at Adelaide. Four years later his 440 runs at 55 was joint leading series aggregate with Herbert Sutcliffe, and having finished the series with scores of 101 and 75 not out, with a six to end the match with a flourish, he proceeded to bash 227 and then a new test record 336 not out in the two match series England played in New Zealand on their way home, a record four innings sequence of 739 runs.
  4. Clive Inman – right handed batter. He played for Leicestershire until Ray Illingworth was brought in as captain and decided that the team could not function as such with him and Peter Marner in it, whereat he moved to Derbyshire. He cashed in a combination of Nottinghamshire wanting to provoke a declaration and needing to speed up their over rate the reach a 50 in eight minutes, now quite rightly relegated to a footnote in the record books – big Jim Smith’s 11 minute effort for Middlesex was made against proper bowling.
  5. Stanley Jackson – right handed batter, right arm medium fast bowler. The fact that he played as an amateur and was never able to commit to a tour gave him a bizarre looking test record – five test hundreds, all scored against Australia and all in home matches. Like Fredericks he went into politics post cricket, although he was never a minster – he was at one time chairman of the Unionist Party. When he was preparing to make his maiden speech in the house the debate was not going well for his side and he was told “we are holding you back, it is a sticky wicket”, and then when the situation was looking rosier “Get your pads on, you’re in next”.
  6. *Imran Khan – right handed batter, right arm fast bowler, captain. He emerged with the best record of the four great test all rounders who emerged in the late 1970s (Ian Botham, Kapil Dev and Richard Hadlee were the other three), averaging 37.69 with the bat and 22.81 with the ball. He is another who went into politics after retiring from cricket, and is the current President of Pakistan.
  7. George Lohmann – right arm medium pace bowler, right handed lower order batter. A little high at number seven, but he certainly could bat. However it is is his bowling, 112 wickets in 18 tests at just 10.75 each, that gets him in here.
  8. Fazal Mahmood – right arm fast medium bowler. Once described as the ‘Bedser od Pakistan’, he took his test wickets at 24 each, including a 12 wicket haul in Pakistan’s first ever test match victory at The Oval in 1954.
  9. +Wayne Noon – wicket keeper, right handed lower order batter. 215 dismissals in 92 first class matches, and an average of 20 with the bat including 12 first class fifties. He played county cricket for Nottinghamshire and Northamptonshire, and also played in New Zealand for Canterbury.
  10. Pragyan Ojha – left arm orthodox spinner. Had an excellent record in Indian first class cricket, and played for Surrey in the county championship, spinning them to promotion back to the first division.
  11. Erapalli Prasanna – off spinner. One of four great spinners to play for India in the 1970s, along with Bedi, Chandrasekhar and Venkataraghavan. In the only test match that all four of them played it was Prasanna who had the best figures.

This team has a strong top three, Inman and Jackson are not the worst at four and five, a great all rounder, four fine bowlers and a keeper. Imran Khan, Fazal Mahmood and George Lohmann, with Jackson as fourth seamer give good options in that department and the spin duo of Ojha and Prasanna is high quality, and there is Hammond as seventh bowler.

THE CONTEST

Imran Khan’s XI are clear favourites for this one – the only batters of absolutely indisputable class possessed by Joe Vine’s XI are Weekes and the keeper Ames, and the bowling while stronger is not sensational. Imran Khan’s XI by contrast is undeniably strong in both departments. I bring this post to a close by presenting the teams in tabulated form.

TTA IX