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How great was Brian Lara as a pure match-winner?

Harsh Thakor

First Class Star
Joined
Oct 1, 2012
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Statistically Brian Lara was a champion in lost causes and had a high average in drawn games.He scored very few centuries in winning causes in test matches but still at his best pulled off some sensational wins for his country almost single -handed.Few batsmen possessed the debonair or cavalier batting style of Brian Lara who resembled a prince when batting.Unlike Viv Richards or Gary Sobers he single-handedly carried the brunt of a weak batting side.No great batsmen could single handedly change the complexion of a weak team like Lara.After George Headley no batsmen scored an average percentage of total team aggregate runs as Lara.No great batsmen has turned the tables of a test series like Lara did in the 1999 Frank Worrel trophy with 2 successive match-winning knocks of 211 and an unbeaten 153.Lara could accumulate mammoth scores at a phenomenal scoring rate and never curbed his tempo.He was more mercurial than Sachin Tendulkar and arguably more imaginative than Sir Viv Richards executing strokes that were surreal.If Lara had played in team sof the 1970's and 80's he may have been right up there as the best match-winner.Had he played for recent Australian or South African teams of his era he may have been the best match-winner statistically of that era.Lara was at his peak when West Indian cricket was in the doldrums,from 2001-07.In his early peak from 1992-95 he scored some match-winning centuries in England in 1995..It is a strange coincidence that his 3 highest scores did not win games like his 400 ,375 and 277.

Still adjusting the scales of strength of team I rate Lara better match-winner than Ricky Ponting ,Jacques Kalis or Sachin Tendulkar and arguably even Gary Sobers and Rahul Dravid.Lara contained that flair and temperament so needed for match-winners.Overall still I rate Viv Richards,Jack Hobbs,Walter Hammond and Don Bradman ahead as a match-winners and debatably Inzamam Ul Haq and Adam Gilchrist..No batsman has ressurected his team single-handedly to win game like Lara did v Australia at Barbados in 1999.Lara also has a better average match performance rating than any modern great batsman which considers strength of opposition,nature of wicket,match situation,impact on game etc.With the score at say 60-5 or 120-7 ,I would prefer having Lara than any batting great ,to win game.Still Consistently Viv and Bradman would be better match-winners.Adjust Lara's scores in respect to the strength of team he played for and he would be right thee with the best as a match-winner.Tendulkar was a more complete and consistent batsmen but in my book not as sound in delivering the final knockout punch as Lara.Cristopher Martin Jenkins agrees that in his peak Lara could win more games.I may give Jack Hobbs and Walter Hammond the marginal edge as match-winners to Lara in addition to Bradman,Hobbs,Inzamam and Gilchrist.

This is my subjective opinion ,As we have not seen a Lara playing for a champion team.

BRIAN LARA

won match 1992-2005 32 52 4 2929 213 61.02 4387 66.76 8 16 1 389 30 view innings
lost match 1992-2006 63 126 0 5316 226 42.19 9283 57.26 14 22 13 712 34 view innings
drawn match 1990-2006 36 54 2 3708 400* 71.30 6083 60.95 12 10 3 458 24 view innings


In terms of average in winning cause many great batsmen are better than Lara as shown below.Even Gary Sobers and Greg Chappel have considerably higher averages in wins but have not scored over 4000 run sin wins.Sobers averaged 77.5,while Chappell averaged 70.5.Ricky Ponting averages 59.5 but scored 30 centuries in wins.

Highest Test batting averages in wins (Qual: 4000 runs) Batsman Tests Runs Average 100s/ 50s
Don Bradman 30 4813 130.08 23/ 4
Inzamam-ul-Haq 49 4690 78.16 19/ 20
Kumar Sangakkara 42 4282 71.69 19/20
Steve Waugh 86 6460 69.46 25/ 25
Rahul Dravid 51 5131 65.78 15/23
Sachin Tendulkar 72 5946 61.93 20/24





Here is an an analysis of the runs scored by a batsman during his team's wins,done by Anantha Narayanan in cricinfo cordon ,earlier cricinfo blogs.I feel Lara maybe boosted as he played for a relatively weak team .Playing with other great batsmen was a disadvantage to the Viv Richards.Below the analysis I have given my critical opinion.


ANALYSIS OF ANANTHA NARAYANAN FROM CRICINFO CORDON

I have looked at the % of share of the runs scored by his team. This will give a clear indication of his contributions. There is no comparison done across eras, across teams, across bowlers et al. It is almost like the peer comparison. In truth it is a peer comparison, but the comparison is only within the team, that too only in selected subset of matches. I have also not prepared tables across teams. Each table is for the concerned team.

Analysing batsmen in Test wins

Runs contributed in victories
Ananth Narayanan
October 1, 2009
Text size: A | A


WEST INDIES
Cty Batsman L Mat Runs Wins Runs TmRuns RpT % TS

Win Lara B.C ~ 131 11953 32 2929 14611 91.5 20.05
Win Sarwan R.R 81 5671 13 1210 6505 93.1 18.60
Win Sobers G.St.A ~ 93 8032 31 3097 16926 99.9 18.30
Win Adams J.C ~ 54 3010 21 1534 9045 73.0 16.96
Win EdeC Weekes 48 4455 16 1403 8324 87.7 16.85
Win Greenidge C.G 108 7558 57 4653 27970 81.6 16.64
Win Campbell S.L 52 2882 16 1068 6645 66.8 16.07
Win Walcott C.L 44 3798 12 1113 6955 92.8 16.00
Win Richardson R.B 86 5949 43 3059 19251 71.1 15.89
Win Worrell F.M.M 51 3860 18 1483 9359 82.4 15.85
Win Kanhai R.B 79 6227 27 2404 15248 89.0 15.77
Win Nurse S.M 29 2523 10 873 5569 87.3 15.68
Win Chanderpaul S ~ 121 8576 27 1933 12839 71.6 15.06
Win Lloyd C.H ~ 110 7515 43 3337 22217 77.6 15.02
Win Haynes D.L 116 7487 60 4041 27824 67.3 14.52
Win Fredericks R.C ~ 59 4334 15 1256 8735 83.7 14.38
Win Kallicharran A.I ~ 66 4399 19 1437 10127 75.6 14.19
Win Hunte C.C 44 3245 22 1744 12417 79.3 14.05
Win Hinds W.W ~ 45 2608 10 641 4566 64.1 14.04
Win Richards I.V.A 121 8540 63 4300 30787 68.3 13.97
Win Butcher B.F 44 3104 16 1174 8856 73.4 13.26
Win Stollmeyer J.B 32 2159 10 681 5442 68.1 12.51
Win Gayle C.H ~ 82 5502 17 920 8106 54.1 11.35
Win Gomes H.A ~ 60 3171 27 1386 12257 51.3 11.31
Win Hooper C.L 102 5762 33 1560 15008 47.3 10.39
Win Logie A.L 52 2470 26 1238 12164 47.6 10.18
Win Dujon P.J.L 81 3322 44 1758 20311 40.0 8.66
Win Jacobs R.D ~ 65 2579 16 527 7439 32.9 7.08

Lara has contributed quite significantly, above 20%, to the (somewhat lower) proportion of wins during his career. From the strong West Indian teams of the 1980s, only Greenidge is present in the top-10. In fact Richards has a somewhat lower % of runs value of 13.9 although one must admit that he had a win ratio of greater than 50%.
What does this indicate. Possibly that the other batsmen were quite strong. However this is negated by the presence of all the top West Indian batsmen of the 1950s in the top-10.

The above analysis is unfair to Viv Richards or Clive Lloyd but can be attributed to playing for such champion teams.Lara is ranked above every great West Indian batsmen be it Viv Richards,Everton Weekes or Gary Sobers as a match-winner.

Statistisc from other countries-

AUSTRALIA

Cty Batsman L Mat Runs Wins Runs TmRuns RpT % TS

Aus Bradman D.G 52 6996 30 4813 17036 160.4 28.25
Aus Chappell G.S 87 7110 38 3595 19209 94.6 18.72
Aus Simpson R.B 62 4869 22 2015 11264 91.6 17.89
Aus Bradman D.G 52 6996 30 4813 17036 160.4 28.25
Aus Chappell G.S 87 7110 38 3595 19209 94.6 18.72
Aus Simpson R.B 62 4869 22 2015 11264 91.6 17.89
Aus Lawry W.M ~ 67 5234 20 1853 10714 92.7 17.30
Aus Harvey R.N ~ 79 6149 41 3253 19174 79.3 16.97
Aus Hill C ~ 49 3412 25 2223 13200 88.9 16.84
Aus Walters K.D 74 5357 28 2303 14211 82.2 16.21
Aus McDonald C.C 47 3107 23 1557 9994 67.7 15.58
Aus Ponting R.T 136 11341 90 7754 50453 86.2 15.37

Lara has a better rating than even Greg Chappell and Ricky Ponting or even Neil Harvey.


ENGLAND
Cty Batsman L Mat Runs Wins Runs TmRuns RpT % TS

Eng Hutton L 79 6971 27 2678 11891 99.2 22.52
Eng Hobbs J.B 61 5410 28 2720 13715 97.1 19.83
Eng Gooch G.A 118 8900 32 2950 15504 92.2 19.03
Eng Boycott G 108 8114 35 2950 16366 84.3 18.03
Eng Hammond W.R 85 7249 29 2584 14614 89.1 17.68

Lara is better than Hobbs and Hammond which is remarkable


PAKISTAN

Cty Batsman L Mat Runs Wins Runs TmRuns RpT % TS

Pak Shoaib Mohammad 45 2705 12 1055 4927 87.9 21.41
Pak Saeed Anwar ~ 55 4052 23 2254 11079 98.0 20.34
Pak Inzamam-ul-Haq 120 8830 49 4690 25012 95.7 18.75
Pak Younis Khan 63 5260 22 2241 12570 101.9 17.83
Pak Javed Miandad 124 8832 39 2923 17298 74.9 16.90

Lara is ahead of Inzamam


INDIA

Cty Batsman L Mat Runs Wins Runs TmRuns RpT % TS

Ind Viswanath G.R 91 6080 20 1637 9029 81.8 18.13
Ind Sidhu N.S 51 3202 13 1179 6680 90.7 17.65
Ind Dravid R 134 10823 44 4005 23227 91.0 17.24
Ind Tendulkar S.R 159 12773 51 4416 26993 86.6 16.36
Ind Gavaskar S.M 125 10122 23 1671 10417 72.7 16.04

Lara is better than Tendulkar and Dravid.





SRI LANKA

Cty Batsman L Mat Runs Wins Runs TmRuns RpT % TS

Slk Sangakkara K.C ~ 85 7308 41 4179 22486 101.9 18.58
Slk de Silva P.A 93 6361 19 1467 8736 77.2 16.79
Slk Jayawardene D.P.M.D 107 8750 48 4155 25575 86.6 16.25

Lara is better than Sangakaara or Jayewardene


SOUTH AFRICA

Cty Batsman L Mat Runs Wins Runs TmRuns RpT % TS

Saf McGlew D.J 34 2440 11 1156 5285 105.1 21.87
Saf Smith G.C ~ 77 6343 40 3783 20252 94.6 18.68
Saf Wessels K.C ~ 40 2788 12 1044 5800 87.0 18.00
Saf Kallis J.H 131 10277 64 5099 31306 79.7 16.29
Lara better than Kallis .

MY ANALYSIS OF RATING

This analysis would be misleading in terms of rating Viv Richards,Clive Lloyd,Rohan Kanhai or Adam Gilchrist less than their moral value as match-winners or inflating Saed Anwar,Shoaib Mohammad,Geoff Boycott and Sarwan.Arguably unfair to George Headley and Graeme Pollock because they had short careers and did not score 2000 runs in test wins or win 10 tests.Lara is correctly rated ahead of Kallis,Tendulkar,Dravid,but wrongly ranked ahead of Viv Richards or arguably Inzamam and Gilchrist.I feel Bradman and Hobbs deserve to be ranked ahead as in the list.
 
One of my favorite batsman, loved watching him bat. Won't argue if someone rates him a better Test batsman than Sachin.
 
I think the biggest mistake is to look at a stat and say is means something other than what it represents.
 
I don't think he was better than Sachin but he was definitely one the best of all times
 
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