TOPIC:

BH 250-0 versus Australia; 344-1 versus England

Beasley Hutton wrote:

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.

mate , on Gordon Greenidge , Australia were getting that much of a flogging we started walking around the ground for different views and ended up on the river side or deep point for Greenidge
Maxxy Walker was coming in from the northern end and decided it was time for something short again and Gordon , who was injured and on one leg , just rocked back and rifled a pull that didn't go much higher than about 10 maybe 12 foot high but whistled far over & past the boundary at deep square leg easily 100 metres and again like a rifle shot fast
made Max look like a net trundler

Yes Southy mate Gordon would get up on one leg and swivel when playing those scintillating pull shots. Anything short and he would cut or pull it to or over the boundary regularly.
AR even when you would finally get one of Greenidge or Haynes out you had one I.V.A Richards coming in at 3 to destroy the bowling further and or Richardson, Lloyd etc.

BH: yes mate, it shows you what a great side the windies were in those days, and in regards to Sir Clive, we saw when he was not quite at his best, purely because of understandable age. Amazing; Logie, for his part, would have been the only one whom missed the Australian side.

I still believe in that great West Indian era that they had all other countries beaten before a ball was even bowled - the aura was just something no other country could counter 
then the barrage started either from the seemingly never-ending line of quicks or from the most brutal batsmen in memory
Clive Lloyd was one of the most brilliant cover fieldsmen the game has seen , he was just so quick for a man mountain 
I think he is still one of less than a handful of men who have hit a six straight down the ground at the old Adelaide Oval

Greenidge was my favourite player growing up throughout mid 70s -80s, like folk have said, when injured he was an even better player.

Really scratch my head as to why those WSC stats aren't included in individual players records.....it was predominantly the best of the best playing at the time. Especially some of those WI v Aust matches.

Greg Chappell scored over 1400 runs at 56 and Lillee took 60+ wickets at 26....Richards and Roberts weren't that far behind them as well....

I'm sure you will all agree with me, it's a bit exciting at times when fox cricket dusts off the old one-day games from the early 80's and we get a reminder of how good some of those players were.

Just imagine how far blokes like Broder, Greenidge, Richards, Lloyd etc could hit a ball nowadays with bats as big as they use now.

Southerner I reckon your comment would be the only one to hit a straight six out of the ground.........

I recall Tony Greig doing one of his specials on Clive - he had his bats made well over 3 pounds and fitted with 4 bat grips and they were longbow blades
not many would have had bigger bats in those days
I mostly remember him using Gray-Nicholls , Duncan Fearnley & County bats

Southerner, the bats are not necessarily heavier these days, they are thicker with more willow rolled into them. I dont think anyone now would use a bat as heavy as Clive Lloyd
Virat Kohli uses bats that weigh between 1.1 and 1.23 kg and are made of Grade-A English willow. They have a curved blade, with a thickness ranging from 38 to 42 mm
Dre Russ uses a bat that only weighs 2.07 - 2.09 pounds

it was Tendulkar with his piece of tree that got the biggest balls rolling on thickness of bat used , he had some beauties
but by then batmaker numbers had started to increase and with them newer practices aimed at maximum performance , distance - going back to the days of the legends there were very limited batmakers going around , nowadays there are an absolute smorgasbord of timber shapers
The ICC eventually stepped in to amend profile limits at what you posted mate
some of the bats were getting borderline ridiculous big on thickness