[ad_1]
I was reading discourse about these two sides and how they were the most dominant in cricketing history in their respected eras and this got me thinking, who’d win if there was a match between them?
I went over rsctestcricket (you can google it if you wish to simulate something like this) I picked both the squads according to what I thought would be the best for both the teams without any bias, the site only allows you to pick one calendar year so I went with 1985 and 2001 for West Indies and Australia respectively as that was closest to what I wanted. I wished to keep it at a neutral venue like the Lords maybe but it was either home or away so I went with the MCG as the venue.
Note: I will be attaching screenshots of each inning scorecard and also the outcome of the match
Now the first challenge I faced was that the West Indies did not have any premium spinner so I had no option but to go with 4 fast bowlers as the complete bowling attack and this is something the side did when they toured Australia in 1984-85 so I think it is fine. Here is the final squad I picked, sorted with batting positions.
Australia: Justin Langer, Matthew Hayden, Ricky Ponting, Mark Waugh, Darren Lehmann, Steve Waugh (C), Adam Gilchrist (W), Shane Warne, Brett Lee, Jason Gillespie, Glenn McGrath
West Indies: Gordon Greenridge, Desmond Haynes, Richie Richardson, Larry Gomes, Vivian Richards, Clive Lloyd (C), Jeff Dujon, Malcolm Marshall, Micheal Holding, Joel Garner, Courtney Walsh
West Indies won the toss and the pitch was suited for pace bowlers so I made them field first as that was what the captain would have done ideally. All 4 pace bowlers went with their spells and Australia unexpectedly lost all 10 wickets before tea on Day 1 with a score of only 94, as only one batsman (Darren Lehmann) crossed the 20 run mark. Walsh and Garner took 3 each while Marshall and Holding took 2 each.
West Indies started their innings and after a good start from the openers, Warne came out of nowhere and took 2 wickets in his over dismissing Richardson for a duck. Soon after, Haynes and Gomes too fell in quick succession and so both Viv Richards and captain Lloyd were left fairly new on the pitch. That was the start of something magnificent which none of the Aussie bowlers had an answer to as the pair went on to make a record fifth wicket partnership for the country, Viv was 16 runs short of a 200 before he succumbed to Brett Lee. His partner Lloyd however went on to make the 200 after which I declared the innings at 576-5 on Day 3.
At this point a West Indies win was certain unless a lot of unprecedented rain (which the site ignores). An interesting thing though was that the pitch started favouring spin and as I said West Indies did not have any spinners with them. Nevertheless that did not stop the West Indies pace attack to decimitate the Aussie batting lineup once again as they found themselves standing at 94 for 5, courtesy to Marshall who picked up 3. Steve Waugh extended the game a bit though making West Indies wait a bit longer as he piled a 100+ run partnership with Gilchrist and a 50+ run partnership with Warne, completing his ton in the process. Australia were then bundled out for 296 just after the tea break of Day 4.
The 1980s West Indies won the match by an innings and 186 runs, a complete one sided affair and I was expecting a lot more from 2000s Australia. An utter domination by the Caribbean pace bowlers where in my opinion all four had contributed equally and of course the Viv-Lloyd partnership. You could say West Indies had an advantage of winning the toss but Australia were playing at home so I’d say it is square.
Here are the screenshots. Ignore the dismissal methods though, not all of them is bowled some were catches too.
[ad_2]
Source link
