nathan bracken was a better odi bowler than brett lee

[Flem274*]

i know lee has more wickets and a touch lower average, but in the mid 00s bracken was the guy. i've posted before i don't understand how brett lee has such a good odi record and fmd bracken was so good. gave the batsmen nothing at all stages of the innings, moved the ball around, really smart.

he was always the guy you would play out before chasing brett lee around at the death. lee on his day could be scary up front, but his new ball bowling was always offset by being a really really bad death bowler. he's the kind of guy who rocks up to a small ground and bowls bouncers in the 47th over then a week later turns up to a large ground and bowls right in the boundary hitting slot.

brett lee keeps sneaking into all time australian odi sides. for me he's behind bracken. imo starc and mcgrath stroll in, then it's lillee vs bracken for the third spot. brett lee is in the conversation.

 

[Athlai]

Bracken was genuinely an ATG for a few years there,.

 

[stephen]

In the 434 match, the only bowler on both sides to go for less than 7 an over was Bracken, who had figures of 10 overs, 5/67.

 

[TheJediBrah]

Started out as a classic new-ball inswinger-bowling lefty, developed into a middle/late overs slower off-cutter bowler with the ability to do both.

Could have had an excellent Test career too if he wasn't Australian (more so because of Aussie conditions than competition for spots)

 

[Prince EWS]

Bracken was probably slightly before his time in a way.

Lee's death bowling was funny in that a stupid amount of runs that came off it were edges to vacant 1st-2nd slip, and then he'd put his hands on his hand and make the "oawhhhhhh" face as if the fact that he'd 'beaten' the batsman made him inherently unlucky in some way.

If you still bowl for edges when you have no slips and effectively no third man, you're going to be "unlucky" a lot. He should've been Kyle Mills'd and just not bowled at the death at all.

 

[Migara]

For what it is I think Lee and Bracken were a perfect ODI bowling pair. One taking pitch out of equation with pace and the other taking even the last drop of help for fast bowlers from it. There wasn't much fast bowler - medium fast bowler combinations in ODI hisrory which were successful. Wasim / Waqar and Aaqib Javed was one, Donald and Craig Matthews was successful for a short time, and Malinga and Vaas / Kulasekara for sure. Neither of the bowlers would be so much successful without the other.

 

[Burgey]

Australia would have won in India in 2008 had they picked Bracken as a spinner instead of Cameron White and Haddin kept up to the stumps as he bowled cutters from both over and around the wicket.

 

[harsh.ag]

Agreed.

Not with the senile lawyer fella but with the OP.

Bracken isn't necessarily a better ODI bowler than Lee, but would be a much better addition to McGrath-Starc

 

[mr_mister]

His cricinfo profile states he couldn't do as much with the red ball as the white.

Is this just lazy analysis based on his poor test average from a super small sample size?

Or was this a common opinion of critics and pundits at the time

because his FC average looks pretty respectable, especially his best figures of 7/4

 

[morgieb]

His cricinfo profile states he couldn't do as much with the red ball as the white.

Is this just lazy analysis based on his poor test average from a super small sample size?

Or was this a common opinion of critics and pundits at the time

because his FC average looks pretty respectable, especially his best figures of 7/4

I'm thinking the former, but I do think he did struggle to swing the red ball compared to the white one.

With that said, Australia of the 2000's was the worst country for his style of bowling. Other parts of the Anglosphere and he'd have swung it more, whereas a lot of his ODI success was based on having a lethal cutter that would've been effective in Asia.

 

[Shri]

Is it just me or anyone else get an image of bracken bowling really accurately and giving nothing away with the keeper standing up near the stumps?

Think it was a clip they used in ten sports for the weekly top 10 odi bowlers clip and I saw that a lot qmd the image got burnt into my head

 

[Burgey]

Yeah he used to do that in the middle and later overs with the older ball back in the days when they used to scuff p. He was basically a slightly faster Underwood in those conditions, which is why I think he would have been handy with that method on Indian decks around that time. Certainly better than Cameron White ffs.

 

[honestbharani]

Bracken was instrumental in Australia winning that 2006 ICC Champions Trophy too. Remember Gayle going berserk at the start and only Bracken could pull him in. Not even McGrath I think. Under rated ODI bowler. Not sure of his long form potency though.

 

[vcs]

India handled him pretty easily in the 2003-04 series. Flat pitches, admittedly. I remember the much-maligned Brad Williams was more of a threat in the Tests.

 

[TheJediBrah]

India handled him pretty easily in the 2003-04 series. Flat pitches, admittedly. I remember the much-maligned Brad Williams was more of a threat in the Tests.

Yeah they would have been most of his career Tests too. Conditions definitely did not suit him and was the strongest batting line-up in world cricket other than Australia. Bit unlucky.

 

[Kirkut]

India handled him pretty easily in the 2003-04 series. Flat pitches, admittedly. I remember the much-maligned Brad Williams was more of a threat in the Tests.

Brad Williams was very quick, he was matching Lee in speeds that series.

 

[SteveNZ]

Bracken was probably slightly before his time in a way.

Lee's death bowling was funny in that a stupid amount of runs that came off it were edges to vacant 1st-2nd slip, and then he'd put his hands on his hand and make the "oawhhhhhh" face as if the fact that he'd 'beaten' the batsman made him inherently unlucky in some way.

If you still bowl for edges when you have no slips and effectively no third man, you're going to be "unlucky" a lot. He should've been Kyle Mills'd and just not bowled at the death at all.

Now known, or should be known as Matt Henry'd

 

[Red Hill]

brett lee keeps sneaking into all time australian odi sides. for me he's behind bracken. imo starc and mcgrath stroll in, then it's lillee vs bracken for the third spot. brett lee is in the conversation.

Perfect Australian attack would be:

McGrath
Starc
Bracken
Warne/Hogg
Symonds

 

[ankitj]

Lillee > Bracken and Lee.

 

[Prince EWS]

Siddle >

Lillee > Bracken and Lee.