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Most epic battle between a spinner vs a star batsman?

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Ahmad Shah

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Which one is ur favorite battle between a spinner and a star batsman of any era
In which u have seen great n even contest
I'm not talking about one sided contest
It could of an odi or test match or even an entire series

I don't remember many such battles
Two of my favorite contest r KP vs Warne 2005 ashes pretty much even
And ajmal vs sachin was enjoyable because no-one expected sachin will struggle against ajmal
 
Any of Yasir Shah or Saeed Ajmal vs top batsmen ones.
 
saqlain vs sachin

saqlain got sachin thrice in 1999 series

sachin manage to score a century in madras
overall evenly contest and very exciting
 
MenInG said:
Any of Yasir Shah or Saeed Ajmal vs top batsmen ones.
Click to expand...

yasir vs root reminds me of KP vs Warnie

root is what KP was few years back i.e leading english batsman
Yasir is what warne was a decade back i.e world best leg spinner

plus yasir faced root atleast in 6 test matches
quite a good sample to be declare as a fair contest
 
Ajmal to Sangakkara and Murali to Lara.

Kaneria to Kallis was another good one but didn't happen a lot.
 
Ahmad Shah said:
Which one is ur favorite battle between a spinner and a star batsman of any era
In which u have seen great n even contest
I'm not talking about one sided contest
It could of an odi or test match or even an entire series

I don't remember many such battles
Two of my favorite contest r KP vs Warne 2005 ashes pretty much even
And ajmal vs sachin was enjoyable because no-one expected sachin will struggle against ajmal
Click to expand...

Sachin was well past his prime in 2011. A prime Sachin vs Saqlain was a treat to watch. Saqlain did get better off Sachin initially. But Sachin managed some runs as the series progressed.
 
Ahmad Shah said:
that was not an even contest
sachin dominates warne throughout his career

murli vs sachin is a better contest
in test cricket sachin was murli bunny
Click to expand...

Really? By dismissing him 7 times in that format? I thought a bowler needs to dismiss a batsman at least 10 times in order to claim him as his bunny.
 
kohli vs imran tahir nowadays. The way kohli cleverly neutralizes tahir's googly is one of many reasons tahir comes up short against india. Even in ct quarter-final, you can see kolhi glancing and one some instances lofting his googlies for four.

It is not a very entertaining battle but it very captivating on the technical level. I have seen kohli sometimes play intentional dot balls in hopes that tahir will bring out his googly & setup the bowler
 
I haven't seen too many but it's definitely Yasir vs any of the top batting sides. He's played against Sanga, Smith, Root etc so there's plenty of quality batsmen he's faced.
 
Manoj Prabhakar vs any Pakistani batsman of the 80s and early 90s
 
sachin vs saqi is probably one of the most epic battles

The most one sided ones include lara vs murali, sachin vs warne, bhaji vs ponting
 
Kp vs Warne

Lara taking apart Kaneria was brilliant to watch

Ajmal vs Sangakara

Younis vs Herath
 
Saeed Ajmal vs Hashim Amla/AB de Villiers was always great to watch. Ajmal was the best spinner in the world and the South Africans were the best batsmen in the world so it was cricket at its absolute best.
 
Murali vs Lara 2001 series for mine.

Lara's overall career average slipped below 50 and critics did not show much sympathy, suggesting he was a spent force with a big ego and little heart.

Daren Ganga, who was Lara's team-mate and opener during that series, recalled how those comments played a key role in motivating Lara.

"I've always viewed Brian's batting on that tour as the most remarkable I've ever seen live," Ganga says. "Having played with him many times for West Indies and Trinidad & Tobago, I don't recall ever seeing his preparations and pre-game warm-ups so focused before matches.

"Clearly he had taken offence to what the critics were saying and it moulded some extra competitiveness in him."

When asked about Muralitharan and Shane Warne, post-retirement, Lara gave an insight into how he managed to play Murali so well, averaging 77.73 in nine Tests against him.

"Muttiah always confused me in the first half-an-hour to 45 minutes," Lara said. "I had no clue what was going on. I don't know if he knew, [but] after 45 minutes, if I was still there, I could see that he was losing confidence."

Legendary Sri Lanka spinner Muttiah Muralitharan opines that even though Sachin Tendulkar is ahead of every batsman in terms of runs scored and centuries hit, the great West Indies batsman Brian Lara is better than him.

“Statistics-wise he may be but there are better players such as Ricky Ponting while Brian Lara is the best player that has ever been. When I bowled, I always found Brian Lara difficult,” Murali said.
Click to expand...
 
Ajmal vs Sachin in the 2011 WC SF was a treat to watch.

Also Ajmal vs Sanga back in 2011-14. Sanga came out on top most of the time in Tests but Ajmal did much better in ODI's and T20's.
 
salim malik vs warne and malik wins..1994 series....he was carted all over the park..
 
Afridi has pwned almost all spinners who've crossed his path in tests/Odis/t20is.

He was absolutely merciless against likes of Kumble/Harbhajan etc. His 141 something was better than SRT's in Chennai '99 test imo
 
WhenSultansBowled said:
Afridi has pwned almost all spinners who've crossed his path in tests/Odis/t20is.

He was absolutely merciless against likes of Kumble/Harbhajan etc. His 141 something was better than SRT's in Chennai '99 test imo
Click to expand...

Afridi's 140 odd against the legendary Indian bowling attack was better than Sachin's 137 on a 5th day track batting with severe back pain against the likes of Akram, Waqar, Saqlain, etc?
 
Ahmad Shah said:
Which one is ur favorite battle between a spinner and a star batsman of any era
In which u have seen great n even contest
I'm not talking about one sided contest
It could of an odi or test match or even an entire series

I don't remember many such battles
Two of my favorite contest r KP vs Warne 2005 ashes pretty much even
And ajmal vs sachin was enjoyable because no-one expected sachin will struggle against ajmal
Click to expand...

Warne vs arvinda, warne vs lara, murali vs. lara, warne vs cronje.....


Out of these i'd pick warne vs. cronje as the most intriguing, cronje was the best player of spin in SA and someone who like to slog sweep warne, and he was successful, he attacked warne.....Arvinda vs warne was fascinating because you can see warne spining a yarn around arvinda but somehow arvinda had control....honorable mention would go to saeed anwar and salim malik, saeed anwar looked in control against warne but then he would suddenly try to overattack and give in, in other cases he would under attack, i think warne won the mental battle against him, i.e. 1999 gabba test. Salim malik and warne was never a contest, malik was like a giant facing a club rating cricketer in the 1994 series.
 
Ones that I recall vividly:

1. Tendulkar vs Warne 1998
2. Tendulkar vs Saqlain 1999
3. Lara vs Warne 1999
4. Lara vs Murali 2001
5. Tendulkar vs Giles 2001
6. Lara vs MacGill 2003
7. Pietersen vs Warne 2005
8. Pietersen vs Murali 2006
9. Pietersen vs Ashwin 2012
10. Cook vs Ashwin 2012
 
Ajmal vs Sangakkara
Murali vs Lara / Shewag
Warne vs Sachin
Sidhu vs any spinner
 
TQ89 said:
kohli vs imran tahir nowadays. The way kohli cleverly neutralizes tahir's googly is one of many reasons tahir comes up short against india. Even in ct quarter-final, you can see kolhi glancing and one some instances lofting his googlies for four.

It is not a very entertaining battle but it very captivating on the technical level. I have seen kohli sometimes play intentional dot balls in hopes that tahir will bring out his googly & setup the bowler
Click to expand...

kohli is just too good a batsmen
 
Lara vs warne in 1999 in the W.I was a facinating contest to watch between two world class players at their peak of their respective powers.
 
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