Who's the second best Aussie batsman ever?

[Warne]

Will Ponting be considered the 2nd greatest batsman Australia has produced? Or someone else is more deserving?

[Quagmire]

I think Bill Ponsford would be up there. His test career looks nothing amazing but he was a first class legend in Australia. Bradmans right hand man and in my opinion was the best before Bradman. Ponting is an amazing batsman and it will be interesting to see the stats that he will have at the end of his career

Bill Ponsford, died at Kyneton, Victoria, on April 6, 1991; at 90, he was Australia's oldest living Test cricketer and the sole survivor of HL Collins's 1926 team in England. He made 162 in his second first-class game, for Victoria against Tasmania at Launceston in February 1922, but did not play for the state again until selected against the same opposition a year later in Melbourne. Then, in what was only his fourth innings, he created a sensation by hitting 429 in 477 minutes: it was the world's highest first-class score until he bettered it five years later. Furthermore, Victoria's 1059 was the first four-figure total in any first-class match, and Ponsford, who was captaining the side, stayed until he made the 1000th run himself, having gone in at 200 for three.

Four centuries for Victoria in 1923-24, including 248 out of 456 with Edgar Mayne for the first wicket against Queensland - still an Australian record - sounded a warning note of what was in store for bowlers. The next season he played in all five Tests against England and scored 110 and 128 in the first two, an unprecedented achievement. His tour of England in 1926 was less successful, but early in December a veritable torrent of runs began to flow from his bat. Never before had anyone strung together such a series of colossal scores as Ponsford did in 1926-27 and 1927-28. In 1926-27, his innings were 214 and 54, 151, 352, 108 and 84, 12 and 116, 131 and 7, producing an aggregate of 1229 runs at 122.90; in 1927-28 he scored 133, 437, 202 and 38, 336, 6 and 2, and 63 - an aggregate of 1217 at 152.12. His 336 against South Australia in January 1928 was his eleventh first-class hundred in consecutive matches in Australia.

[feverpitch]

What about the great Victor Trumper, considered one of the best batsmen of all time on 'sticky wickets.'

[south beds mikey]

Can only comment on the ones I've seen so have gone for S.Waugh There have been many Aussie batsman I'd rather watch (his brother for one) but for guts and productivity, and if you wanted a player from any country in the 90s to bat for your life he must be your man.

[Milo]

I still have Ponting slightly below the other three great Australian batsmen I have seen (Chappell, Waugh and Border). For all those talking about his average, I remember the exact same statements when Gilchrist finished the tour of South Africa after his double and hundred and averaged 61. What does he average now? 49? Bottom line is, statistics are not too important. In 1986, four players still playing in test cricket averaged over 50 (Border, Javed, Richards, Gavaskar). Now there must be about 15. More importantly, only five additional players averaged over 45. This clearly shows one can't compare people by using figures, like so many are doing nowadays.

Ponting's in great form and he really is a delight to watch but there really was no escaping in test cricket 25 years ago when every test team had at least one world class opening bowler. Botham and Willis was a far better test than the current England line up. New Zealand was always a test, Pakistan were much stronger - as were India (and let's not mention the West Indies).

I personally believe the record of Chappell in World Series cricket and his continual performance against top class bowling (with the exception of one bad patch in 81 I think against the West Indies) puts him at the top of this list. Border was consistent, you always knew what you'd get from him - his performance in the dark days of Australian cricket was immense (the defeats to NZ) and his Caribbean tour in about 83 was probably the best defiance the quartet EVER had. Finally Waugh, once he won his position back, he put together a five year run of form against quality bowling that unfortunately we will never really get to compare with Ponting.

Let's just remember the record of Hayden as a very sobering thought. How good is he? I would suggest he was really pretty mediocre if the truth be known.

[KennyG]

Not many options for the poll.

Ian was better than Greg Chappell IMHO no matter what their career numbers ended up.
Harvey is probably the most over-rated batsman there ever was.
Style over substance.(Like Dean Jones getting replaced by Mark Waugh)
Ponting will end up with all the records but in this era of roped in boundry lines,weak bowling attacks & the new bat technology of today he has it easy.
Border was superior to Steve Waugh because he played the majority of his cricket in a weak team & played in a stong bowling era,so I would pick him.

[Rachael]

Originally Posted by KennyG

Border was superior to Steve Waugh because he played the majority of his cricket in a weak team & played in a stong bowling era,so I would pick him.

I'm not sure enough of the others to cast a voite... but Border was the first name I went looking for in the poll. His list of dismissals reads like a who's who of modern bowling

See http://statserver.cricket.org/guru?s...lds= viewtype

[Milo]

Originally Posted by KennyG

Not many options for the poll.

Ian was better than Greg Chappell IMHO no matter what their career numbers ended up.

How are you defining better Kenny? Ian's certainly a better bloke, and undid a few more buttons on his shirt whilst batting (in fact Greg was a self obsessed - and still is - idiot) but I remember his batting was of a completely different standard to his brother's. If we are talking favourites of course, I'd look no further than Dougie Walters.

Totally agree with you on Jones-Waugh. That Mark Waugh replaced Jones was an absolute crime.

[KennyG]

Ian batted #3 & was more attacking.Alot of older Australian cricketers & commentators agree with me too.

Deano was better in O.D.I.'s & test cricket than Junior was.Deano batted alot at #3 too.
Steve tried it & couldn't handle it.Mark did not have the stomach to even try.

As you might have guessed Dean Jones was my favourite.

[Milo]

I always liked Dean Jones a lot Kenny. He was your equivalent of David Gower, in that the selectors always messed him about. He did have the odd bad spell (he had a woeful Ashes series in 90/91, when they dropped Steve Waugh for his brother) but when they actually dropped him he had just saved a test match in Sri Lanka and was batting as well as he had ever done.

In one day cricket, he still makes my all time XI (batting at 4 after Viv and before Javed).