An absolutely disastrous thread. Firstly, the whole premise of this thread is wrong because it is purely based on statistics, and anyone who has followed the careers of both and is not blinded by Misbah *********, will testify that MoYo was leagues above Misbah as a batsman, and even if you consider statistics only, there is no rational way of suggesting that Misbah is better/even same class as MoYo.
Let's consider ODIs. Can't believe some people are even arguing that Misbah is close to MoYo in ODIs.
'Misbah is more consistent'
How is an average of 42 at a SR of 75 (playing bulk of your cricket in the 2000's) over 273 innings with 15 hundreds is inferior to an average of 43 at an average of 74 in 149 innings with ZERO hundreds?
Consider the SR - MoYo played between 1998 and 2009 regularly, and a SR of 75 for that period was not bad at all. For reference, Tendulkar and Ponting in the same period averaged around 45-46 and a SR of around 85, and no one would argue that MoYo was in their league, but this comparison shows that he wasn't as below as the best ODI batsmen of his generation as Misbah is.
The best ODI batsmen of Misbah's era - de Villiers, Kohli, Amla, Williamson etc. are on a different planet, which sums up how inferior he is to MoYo in ODIs.
He is not even close to Michael Clarke and no one considers him an ODI great.
The biggest gem in this thread is 'its idiotic in my mind to over emphasis 100s, and its usually unthinking children who are fixated on it, after all theres no effective difference between a 99 and a 100.'
Nice buzz, but useless drivel - yes there is no effective difference between 99 and a 100, but IIRC, Misbah has only two 90+ scores in his ODI career and no matter how Misbah ******* spin it (no support etc.) the truth is that he was simply not good enough to score an ODI hundred and it is very easy to decipher why, should you close Cricinfo Statsguru and watch the matches instead, because there really is no substitute to watching the game. Unless you want to argue that there is no effective difference between a 60/70 and a 100+ score.
Misbah's strike rotation was as bad as I've ever see, and the fact that he took around 100 deliveries to get to 60-70 meant that scoring a hundred was practically impossible for him. You cannot come in at number 4/5 and bat for a 120-130 deliveries, which is what he'd have needed to score an hundred.
After facing around 100 deliveries, in the quest to up the ante, he would throw his wicket away which is why he never got a hundred and never earned the reputation of a finisher; he was simply a consolidator who brought the innings to a complete halt but did a very important job for a team that was extremely vulnerable for a period, and he was the only batsman worth any salt. However as I said before, in a strong dynamic lineup, he's a hindrance because in its true sense, he is a mediocre ODI batsman who shone in a terrible lineup.
The only way he could have got an ODI hundred is by doing a Shehzad and opening the innings, or perhaps bat at number 3 and he was unwilling to do it and I don't blame him).
In relative terms, MoYo statistics in 2000's translates to 47-48 @ARound 85-90, which is world class and that is what he was - a world class ODI batsman.
Fixation with hundreds would be wrong if we compare someone like Hafeez to Misbah, who has the third most centuries in ODIs for Pakistan (along with Inzamam and Ijaz) but he is not a better ODI batsman than Misbah because he isn't consistent enough, but here we are talking about a batsman with a 40+ average and a strike rate that is good relative to his era.
MoYo vs. Misbah in ODIs is not even worth debating.
MoYo was soft under pressure, but he has played some good pressure knocks as well, however yes I agree that his record in World Cups is poor. Misbah on the contrary has often been the lone man standing, but let's not pretend that he bolted under pressure; we are talking about a batsman who couldn't score 1 run in 2 balls vs. India, played a disastrous shot in the final after bringing his team so close and absolutely melted under pressure in Mohali, one of the worst ODI innings on the big stage - was 17 (40) at one stage.
Misbah is relatively less a bottler, but he is no big match player either.
In Tests, Misbah has a respectable record but again, most of his runs have come in the UAE, India, West Indies and Bangladesh, while both have a good record in New Zealand.
MoYo on the other hand hasn't done well in Australia and South Africa, but his 111 at the MCG against McGrath, Warne and Gillespie is one of the greatest knock in Australia by a Pakistani batsmen, and let's not even discuss how brilliant he was in England, and how masterfully he handed the lateral movement. All summer, the Sky commentators lauded how late he played and it was a true exhibition of how to bat in England.
Both have poor record in Sri Lanka, but MoYo has done better and even scored a hundred.
Misbah's biggest problem in Tests is his inability to score big; all of the big scores in the last 5 years have come from Younis and to a certain extent, Azhar Ali. You cannot win Tests without scoring big and Misbah is not capable of scoring 150+ and 200+ scores. For someone who is lauded for his temperament and concentration, he really does love throwing his wicket away in Tests after 60s and 70s.
MoYo was extremely good at scoring and that is why he as 24 hundreds/4 double hundreds in 156 innings, and had one of the greatest peaks ever. Misbah did well to score 3-4 hundreds last year against Australia/New Zealand after the top-order piled up 500+ scores but between May 2011 and November 2013, he couldn't score a single hundred.
MoYo's attitude and personality let him down big time, but don't let Misbah ******* delude you into believing that he wasn't a top quality batsman and Misbah can be compared to him. His ego bloated after he grew a beard anf got brainwashed by tableeghis, and ultimately lost 4-5 golden years.
He was on course to end with 10,000+ runs in both formats, and 30+ Test hundreds, and around 20 ODI hundreds. He was pretty much in the class of someone like Sangakkara who made full use of ODIs post-2010, something MoYo missed out on which makes his record in the 2000's even more fantastic.
This thread is a classic example of how unreliable a purely statistical analysis can be. Misbah is a gentleman and a very good ambassador of Pakistan cricket and a good batsman, but he is nowhere near MoYo the batsman.
MoYo barely played T20s and it rose into prominence in the last 7-8 years so a MoYo vs. Misbah cannot be done without making too many assumptions, but I'd back a peak MoYo to do well as a T20 opener.
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- except of course [MENTION=134608]Hawkeye[/MENTION]
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