TOPIC:

Mate, how many bowlers over the years, have a test average in the early 20's? Totally agree Tait and Malinga aren't going to win you as many matches as McGrath's, Marshall's, Garner's and  Ambrose's did....but a bowling average in the late 20's still respectable.....

Senior Seagull wrote:

A WACA memory but not a test. It was WA v one of the touring WI teams, back in the days when the touring team would tune up against the various shield sides, I was there with my bro's, last session of the day and Viv Richards was batting but had i think a hammy niggle, so instead of retiring, he decided he didn't need to run but just stand and deliver and hit boundary after boundary, half of which were maximums what a treat that was.

Similarly, my memory of the ground wasn't a test but Bob Paulsen's match winning leg-spin bowling for WA two-years in a row against the MCC (1974-75) and the West Indies (1975-76). It was in the later match that Richards collared Paulsen (and others) in the first innings, almost hitting a Trinity College schoolboy walking along Hay Street with a massive six, but Paulsen had his revenge in the second innings with 8 for 71.

Freezin: bowlers are suppose to win test matches, which Tommo helped do in a couple of series to his credit; but overall he was similar to England's Frank Tyson-- they called him 'typhoon'.

In regards cricket at the WACA, I enjoyed listening to Hughes make a quick 30 or 40 trying to help the bowlers force out right wins. His shield average was over 40 higher than his full fc average. Bowling Qld out for 52 --Border Chappell, Wessels Ritchie and co in a Shield match, 1982. There would not have been a stronger Qld batting line-up before or since.

Yep true mate, wickets do indeed win matches....... but sometimes a bowler does just a good  job applying scoreboard pressure down one end, allowing  others to cash in and take the wickets at the opposite end......Walker, Alderman, Hughes and Gillespie didn't have low 20's bowling averages, all had respectable 26 - 29 bowling averages, all were fantastic bowlers in their own right, and caused just as much damage, as those low 20 average bowlers around them.

yep, freezin, it also depends a bit on conditions, if I had a low twenties attack, i would not bowl Anderson, Alderman or Philader in Australia.

AR I would definitely have had any of Alderman, Philander or Anderson pushing up from the Prindiville Stand end into the Fremantle Doctor at the WACA to utilise their outstanding outswingers.
One of the secrets of WA's success for so many years at the WACA was having a reliable swing bowler to push up into the strong afternoon breeze- Massie, Alderman, Malone, MacLeay, Clark, Atkinson, Cary, Moody etc and allow the likes of Lillee, McKenzie, Angel, Julian, Matthews, Reid, Nicholson, Williams etc to let loose with the gale force behind their backs....current day we have the likes of Paris, Hardie, Kelly etc fulfilling that in to the wind role and Richardson, Morris, Green etc coming down wind!

BH: Yes, iwould put Mcclay in our best XI at the Waca, together with DK, garth, Lock and Alderman.  

With the posts on very good to excellent bowlers operating in Perth , there was one other match I attended in Perth and I do recall being quite enthusiastic walking into the ground at Gloucester Park next door to the WACA and given Lillee , Walker , Gilmour , Rod Marsh , the Chappell brothers , Ross Edwards , Laird among some to be playing in the match 
Barely 4 hours later and well over 300 runs later I was one of those shellshocked in the outer watching Barry Richards and an obviously injured Gordon Greenidge belt the bejesus out of the Australian attack with some of the most brutal strokes of a cricket ball you'll ever see , the most murderous display I've seen from both openers in a match to this day
Australia was partially spared the full brunt of Gordon as he retired hurt 
but in swaggered Vivian Richards and he was just as murderous 
don't think Australia got their first wicket until about 450
3 innings from Cricket legends in the old Kerry Packer WSC 

Southy as much as I have enjoyed watching some of our great opening combinations over the years-

Hayden/Langer
Taylor/Slater
Boon/Marsh
Warner/Rogers

Still the greatest opening pair in my time to watch have been Greenidge/Haynes from the WI.
And especially beware the injured Gordon Greenidge as he usually went on a blitzkreig of the bowlers from all countries.