Dhoni impressed me in the one day series with West Indies as he actually looks to have learnt from previous mistakes.Last year against us he just wanted to smash everything but against the West Indies he was adapting to the state of the game and playing his innings accordingly which shows he is improving as a cricketer.

Dhoni against the West Indies.

__________________
Karthik Venkatesan

Gayle is the most valuable big hitter for me. Once he gets going he is hard to get out. I think a big hitter up the order is more important than down the order. He gets the team off to a good start and puts opposition bowlers under pressure. That made me think about Trescothick so I looked up some figures. Strike rates aren't that important if a batsman isn't going to be around very long. The conversion rates of Gayle and Trescothick are very good. I think South Africa should put Kemp up to number four which he wants as he can build an innings and still be there for the big hitting at the end but the other players are fine where they are.

Gilchrist 14 hundreds 48 fifties s/r 96.29
Pietersen 3 - 11 94.90
Flintoff 3 - 16 88.33
Symonds 5 - 21 92.04
Dhoni 2 - 12 98.49
Oram 1 - 5 80.58
Afridi 4 - 27 108.58
Trescothick 12 -21 85.21
Kemp 1 - 8 86.18
Jayasuriya 23 - 62 90.42
Gayle 14 -48 96.29

I must confess that I should have included Adam Gilchrist in the poll list because I personally think that on his day (which is what this is about, not consistency) he is second probably only to Afridi in taking bowling apart. But I was going by some wrong news given by a stupid friend of mine living in Oz; he said that Gilchrist's sabbatical due to his new baby was going to keep him out of the entire World Cup. Now I know this not to be true.

I think there is little to choose, some batsmen have made centuries more times - but we are saying "on his day" - so I go for Flintoff, he has come good with big hitting when needed.

If the question was "full ftop" rather than "on his day", the question would have been unanswerable IMO.

__________________
Ern

Flintoff isn't the first name to come to my mind. If I was a bowler I wouldn't like to be bowling to Gayle and Jayasuriya, both left handers.

"On his day" is tricky. On his day, most good batsmen whould destroy a batting line up. But we will pick up hitters. Batsmen who love to get after the bowling and usually play with a very high strike rate.

Talk of big hitting and the first name that comes to mind is Afridi. But his problem is that he gets going once in 30 matches. Jayasuriya is another great hitter. Dhoni is different from other hitters in the fact that he can play really huge innings with a very good strike rate. Symonds is a great hitter.

My vote goes for Dhoni.

__________________
My computer can beat me at chess.....but its no match for me at kick boxing.

The thing is... most of the so called "big hitters" wil only ever have such a day when batting is easy: most can do no more than swing through the line amd hope... and few have the sort of ability that Lara and Ponting have to adjust and STILL find the boundary.

Exactly, someone like David Gower could easily score at a quick rate without smashing sixes and he would look so elegant doing it . Or ODI specialists like Bevan or Fairbrother could also score at a run a ball without trying.

Of the modern "big hitters" Pieterson is quickly becoming the most classy and destructive, as long as he doesnt try to become too clever (i.e charging McGrath).

__________________
Mark.

Afridi... he showed it in the ODI against S.A next choice would b Gayle

The most consistent of the whole lot is Dhoni!!!

__________________