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  • Allan was MEAN !!!!

  • Comment removed

  • This was so good. I remember watching this. Test Cricket is so great. Where it meanders and fuck all happens, then you get these periods of intensity. For all of those who didn't see it live, this footage doesn't nearly portray how intense that passage of play was. Donald bowling so fiery and Atherton doing all that he could to survive.

  • The best thing about this is the way that Athers just stands there and takes the hits. He is saying to Donald "YOU CAN'T SCARE ME!" True British spirit.

  • The best thing about this is the way that Athers just stands there and takes the hits. He is saying to Donald "YOU CAN'T SCARE ME!" True British spirit.

  • Being aggressive in not about looking mean and saying mean things to batsman, but rather bowling aggressively. The epitome of aggression was Waqar/Ambrose. They would not say much,rather would bowl fast and hostile overs, unlike Donald here who thinks that you have look mean to be aggressive. I think he was bowling hostile enough to look aggressive.

  • he took atherton's life man look at his face!!!!!!!!

  • I remember this like it was yesterday!

    Thanks for uploading!!

  • 2nd delievery, he say's, "you took your eye off it "!.... example of what great bowler do as their job. being the spear-head...club, state and  country..

  • Great stuff. Test cricket when it was good.

  • An irrepressible force meets and immovable object.

    Oh I love cricket.... Donald was my favourite overseas bowler (I'm from the UK) and Athers my favourite batsman. Of the old school. Another one of him, Thorpe, Stewart and Robin Smith please!

    This clip is fantastic. What other sport has such character and will at play?

    I remember it well.

  • Atherton and Robin Smith would be the only 2 batsmen I would have in the current England side from the 90's. Perhaps Thorpe might sneak in as well.

    Donald I would have in any side in the world, purely just to see a proper fast bowler back in action.

    Modern cricket will now create medium pacers and trundlers to fund 20/20. How very sad.

  • Why Is Srinath In The List ???

  • Love Atherton's Reply Just Stand Your Ground Son

  • too bad Donald will be mostly remember for pissing away the WC for SA in 1999

  • Atherton may not go down as an all time great but he's the most coraegous England batsmen of the last 25 years.

  • When I was a kid, Donald and Shoaib Akhtar used to scare me.

  • srinath???? lol

  • Hahahahah...only a true cricket lover can appreciate that...:)

  • who the f is srinath?

  • @AIMANALI: Yes, when his rhythm was good I remember him clocking over 150 km/h (95mph) consistently and he's a tall bloke too so he got tremendous lift off a good length.

  • As a young South African cricketer in the early 90's, especially us fast bowlers, we wanted to emulate your poetic action. Our hero forever!!!

  • I think he went up to like 95 mph. how come they did not show that . In fact i am pretty sure he did - I remember reading about it back in the days...

  • You have to love Gower's commentary...." vicious...right at the target....which in this instance was the head "....hahahaha

  • I think Athers won that battle. Who won the game in the end?

  • This is so nostalgic. Reminds me of better times when there was no T20, no pretentious commentators and no racial sledging, only quality batting and bowling, and genuine aggression.

  • that bowling action is so fluid and natural. what a player! He's really fired up, one of the best bowling spells I've seen! great video

  • Mike Atherton wasn't a great player, not compared to the all-time greats, but those were dark days for England cricket and for those of us who grew up in the 90s, he was about the closest thing we had to a hero back then.

  • @Fricasso79 While Atherton was pretty good, I always regarded Graham Thorpe as a better Test batsman. In fact in my opinion, for whatever it's worth, Thorpe would be the best English batsman since Gooch. KP comes close but considering the kind of attacks Thorpe faced and the pathetic bunnies that batted around him, I'd have him higher.

  • remember watchin this live....test cricket at its raw brilliant best....

  • dont mess with athers

  • Atherton was superb,what a contest between two great cricketers

  • Round the wicket,bending your back ,snorter after snorter ........Now that is fast bowling ,in its unadulterated purest and pious form.Thank you Mr doland God Bless

  • Round the wicket,bending your back ,snorter after snorter ........Now that is fast bowling ,in its unadulterated purest and pious form.Thank you Mr doland God Bless.

  • Two great players - Atherton had a great technique and Allan Donald, a great competitor who was the fastest bowler in the world for a time.

  • @nik1969100 haha are you kidding? atherton was a joke

  • @brynjones11, how was Atherton a joke, or was your comment more fuelled by nationalism as opposed to a love of cricket?

  • @brynjones11 Athers was a great player mate, if the England team had been managed better back in the 90's his average would have been alot higher IMHO.

  • Great contest. Respect for both Donald and Atherton.

  • 1. Why, when there's a video of one of the most gracious bowlers of all time are there racist comments on the extreme going on?

    2. Why aren't they taken off by the video uploader? Why leave them on?

  • You guys want further proof that bowling has deteriorated considerably in the 2000's... check this stat :

    only 5 batsman averaged around 50 in the 1990s:

    SachinTendulkar(58), BrianLara(54), SteveWaugh(51),RahulDravid(49.­98), SauravGanguly(49.94)

    Compare this with batsman having similar averages in 2000s:

    Hussey,Clarke,Samaraweera,Jaya­wardene,Ponting,Thorpe,Kristen­,Dilshan, Pieterson,Inzamam,YounisKhan,L­anger,Sehwag,Laxman,Smith,M.Yo­usuf,Chanderpaul,Kallis,Hayden­,Gambhir,A.Flower, Gilchrist

  • @vicky9909 - True, it has. I think the amount of One Day games and the rise of Twenty 20 has killed the genuine fast bowler. All pitches these days are too flat and no grass on them anymore.

  • what a joke of a batsman! I know of no other player who continued to be picked in the side so consistently and that too as an opener, despite such utter failure to play fast bowling. McGrath and Walsh literally had him on speed dial.

  • @nikhilllll bit like pieterson, inconsistant but atherton was getting out to fantastic bowlers not a crap bangledeshy slow left armer

  • @nikhilllll u stupid twat u know nothing about cricket clearly

  • @bodazaffa I may be a stupid twat but I could still have played better than him.

  • @nikhilllll and thats why you are a stuid clueless twat,with comments like that!donald was 95 mph plus do u really tink you would have done better? go n do some research before running your mouth off like a brainless buffoon,go n look at ahertons test and 1st class average.fuckwit

  • @bodazaffa yea whats his first class average? its in the 30s. Just to put that into perspective the current Bangladeshi wicketkeeper scores that many everytime he goes out to bat. 

  • @nikhilllll no he doest they are useless n should not even have test status.atherton opened the innings against the worlds best bowlers.first class ave 44.41 test av almst 40.any cricket commontater will also tell you you are talking total shite

  • @bodazaffa YOU RACIST INBRED REDNECK, YOUR TOTAL LACK OF ANY CRICKET KNOWLEDGE TELLS ME YOU'VE JUST OPENED YOUR EYES TO THIS GAME. I WAS AROUND WHEN ATHERTON CAPTAINED THE ENGLISH YOU PROBABLY WERE STILL HAVING YOUR ASS WIPED BY YOUR SISTER/COUSIN

  • @nikhilllll youve played the race card have you,you braught race into it your the racist so fuck off u fucking muslim bastard u fucking black cunt.youre 2nd class citizens with chips on yourshoulders

  • @bodazaffa YOU are the second class fucking race, can't even play the game you invented yourself. Why don't you just roll over and die so that you don't have to end up as slaves to us.

  • @nikhilllll fuck of u racist muslim prick n fuck off out of our country we dont want you smelly skirt wearing,long silly bearded fuckers here anyway,who won the ashes anyway ENGLAND! go n blow yourselves up,n make your women wear berkas like the 15h centuary morons you are.we dont like you we laugh at you and pity you.go and worship your false god like the brainwashed smelly racist morons you are! wankers

  • @bodazaffa I'm not in your country and thats just as well, with your economy tanking and the abject failure of your peoples way of life, who would want to be there anyway? Tell you what, give me your address so I'll send you a one way way ticket to my country. Once you get over the burkhas, we are not half as bad you think we are.

  • @nikhilllll yes you are right on the money there,this country is going to the dogs.there is nothing in the koran about women having to wear burkhas,its totally unnecessary.and i dont think your bad at all,there is good n bad in every race,it just annoyed me when you pulled the race card which i thaught was out of order.

  • @bodazaffa keep on trollin'! I had fun

  • @nikhilllll take care buddy

  • This is mad Test cricket. Shits all over todays crap. Late 80's/90's was the best for contest between bat and ball and when there was a genuine battery of top class fast bowlers around the world. (that i can remember anyway!)

  • this is the glory and magic of test cricket.t20 cant produce such thrill.there is no escape in tests for neither bowlers nor batsmen .you have to really fight.this is cricket in its purest form;more aggressive than boxing, more subtle than chess.

  • the 90's saw some of the finest bowlers South Africa: Donald and Pollock WI: Ambrose and Walsh Australia: Mcgrath, Gillespie and Fleming Sri Lanka: Vaas Pakistan: Waqar and Wasim and India: Javigal. Cricket now is boring with no proper ball and bat contests like they used to be

  • Mike Said of Sachin as Cartoon Character Mike should see his video LOL Who is cartoon here

  • Allan Donald without one of the best out and out pace bowlers South Africa ever had and one of the best of the 90s and early part of his decade. A dream opening bowl pairing would be him and Glenn McGrath. You could have McGrath bowling his tight line and length at one end have Donald charging from the other end. Which would have been something. With fast bowling pairing being Wasim and Waqar

  • Atherton likes to comment about the current players with lot of protection compared to the players with no protection of the past.What would have happened if he had faced this over with no protection.

  • HIV

  • He makes the point becuase he would have played either way.

  • Alan Donald was one of the greats. He had a splendid bowling action. I enjoyed watching him even when he played against my team.

  • Did you enjoyed the semi-final of the 1999 cricket world cup? Donald wasn't the badass guy of the duel with Atherton...

  • STUPID POMS!

  • @brittanymaywelsh1

    lol, made your country.....

  • Stupid poms!!!

    We'll see'll whose stupid when we RETAIN the Ashes down under at the end of the year mate!!!

  • Hi

    Where Can i Get high quality videos of cricket of the 90's? like this one

  • to szarwark95 atleast 1 billion in India alone.

    Man he would have killed him.

  • test cricket at its best...and athers up for the challenge.....donald class act

  • thats true test cricket for u that tests a bowler and the batsmen . awsomw i think arthton was cought behind in earlier test match or in the same one but was n't given by the umpire that really fired donlad .

  • Around a fifth of the globe on a fairly regular basis.

  • uhhhh people who like cricket

  • you just did.

  • szarwark95:

    You have, obviously!! You fucking stupid hypocrite!! LOL

  • there was hardly a cheap run available for batsmen like atherton in that era when there were bowlers like donald, mcgrath, wasim, walsh, ambrose, bishop, pollock, waqar,srinath

  • @EnigmaticMayur  srinath? lol

  • @EnigmaticMayur srinath dosen't deserve to mentioned along with those greats...

  • @EnigmaticMayur and Hadlee

  • @EnigmaticMayur srinath ? which team did he play for

  • @EnigmaticMayur absolutely mate I say that to all the young cricketers when they talk about Athers. He never had a break every team in that era had a formidable bowling attack.

  • @EnigmaticMayur why the f*** is srinath in that list, that cocksucker ave 30 with a s/r of like 65!

  • @EnigmaticMayur Why is Srinath in that list? He was good, but nowhere near the others you mentioned there.

  • @EnigmaticMayur nowadays the only trouble batsmen have is dale steyn

  • @EnigmaticMayur how in the world Srinath in that level? LOL

  • @EnigmaticMayur ohh ok you are from india

  • are the cricket whites england wearing now based on the whites in this video ... i think they are ;)

  • This is one of those utterly compelling pieces of test cricket where no runs are scored and no wickets are taken. And it really shows what test cricket is all about. Only a cold-hearted man could fail to love it.

  • Is it just me or does this look like a fight between prefects from two rival schools?

  • It's you.

  • the secret is for the batsmen is to just look them in the eye like atheres did, because the bowlers the one that will have to turn away back to their mark

  • alan donald in his prime was one bowler i would deffo not wanna face!

  • atherton had some great battles with donald.

  • oh how i miss these kinda duels becuase of begin pitches,extinction of geniune fast bowlers,advancement of protective gear-this is true cricket

  • Bowlers are quicker these days than any other era... there is proof on youtube of the guys bowling speeds, donald is bowling 89 here... ambrose and walsh were bowling 81 82 in the 90s...

  • That's complete rubbish...donald was 90mph easily - and was recorded to

    Walsh & Ambrose were bowling 81 82 in the 2001 series when they were both 35yrs+...watch them 10yrs earlier and you might know better

    Anyway Waqar was quicker than all of them

  • Bowlers are quicker these days, true. In general athletes are better due to science, supplementation, new training methods and, to be realistic, anabolic steroids such as Human Growth Hormone, which are extremely difficult/expensive to test for. Donald, Ambrose etc, could all hit 150+ if they really wanted to. Perhaps not as consistent as Brett Lee/Shoaib Akhtar/Shaun Tait, but ask yourself who were the better bowlers in the history of cricket. It isnt all about pace. Hadlee/Pollock/Mcgrath.

  • read begin as benign

  • steyn's action is better.

  • No steyns action is no where near as good. He just relies on fast twitch muscle fibres to turn his arm... donald gets his whole body side on and uses the power of his legs... hence why he could bowl of 8 paces.

  • just how smooth his action is...absolute beauty to watch

  • definately the best thing to come out of SA apart from poverty and aids

  • donald was the best in the world for many years what a player but i prefer akram

  • Wait am i missing something??? Oh yeah... Athertons still batting and Donald just wore himself out for an over that went for 2 runs.

  • what you are missing is the realisation to the fact that you are an idiot

  • you fucking saffa cunt go and back to your shiity country and die

  • ha ha ha, aww don't worry.... you're still an idiot

  • stylish bowling

  • poor ole donald, the master had all the answers for you son. if only your bowling was as good as your staring!

  • two greats of the game...

  • Donald was a Great of the game ! I was looking for the vid of this famous battle . Thanks for posting it

  • Alan Donald can cuss...lol

  • i was there in durban when donald bowled atherton for a duck.... kirsten scored 275 and south africa won!!!!

  • The old expression big fat hairy deal comes to mind .....

  • Actually when Kirsten scored 275, it was to draw the game! England made South Africa follow on and RSA needed to bat 2 full days to save the game and Kirsten batted for 14 hours for his 275 in a match saving innings. It's the 2nd longest test innings of all time. Also Mark Boucher has the record for highest score as a night watchman!

  • I don't think so. Gillespie got a double century as a night-watchman !

  • I saw the legendary stand Atherton made against Donald at the Wanderers when he scored 186 (I think) to save the match. Jack Russell drove the baying SA crowd mad with he style of leaving the ball which looked like he was playing and missing. After the game Neil Manthorpe (again, I think) reported almost being knocked down in the hotel stairwell by Donald and Atherton each with two beers in their hands looking for the other to share one with. Great sportsmen too.

  • Must have been a few points on ur driving licence!!

  • so you can bowl 112mph can you? Where not stupid.

    Some great bowling by Donald he is without a doubt one of the greatest fast bowlers that South Africa have produce and one of the best all time fast bowlers.

  • your a dick!

  • grow up.

  • Maybe not as fluent as other players around the world...but Atherton had amazing guts and never got intimidated!!!

  • well dis videos not only shows how destructive donald was but also shows how technically correct atherton was (n may b stil is) to handle the fury of donald...over al treat for any cricket lover.....forget d sledging part dis is plain ruthless fast bowling at its best....

  • This is vintage Athers vs the best fast bowler from the opposition, in this case..Donald.

    That's 73823 & counting.

  • Well Graham, why don't you ask the 72'857 people who have viewed this that question?

  • How on earth the gentleman below can regard this as pointless, is quite beyond me. This is Cricket!!!

  • Atherton kept his cool and stood his ground. Show no fear to the opposition!

  • God forbid if something like this happened in a Aus vs Ind game these days, might start a war.

    Donald= the man!

  • have u seen the amount of lip service the Aussies still dish out? nathan bracken, who's 20 KMPH slower than Donald wouldn't shy from giving out more after every ball than Donald did in those 5 deliveries. he was going back before he could complete his sentence, u can't even compare it to what the Aussies do

  • Donald is the man - WHITE LIGHTNING!!

  • one thing's for sure. atherton would've had a few sore spots on his body to attend to that night.

  • Damn right!

    I get get bruises from getting hit by 50 mph bowlers, god knows what getting hit by a 90mph ball a few times does.

  • you just could see the fire in Donald's eyes. But the fact that he came around the wicket meant he was going to target the hands and head of Athers.

  • one of the great fast bowlers from the 90s ;)

  • arise Sir Michael Atherton, fucking legend ice cool..we miss him

  • lol i love this! donald looks so mean.

    He and Curtley Ambrose were two of the most intimidating bowlers in the 90s.

  • And you are a knob-goblin!

  • Ahhh I remember those days... Alan Donald, Jonty Rhodes, Hansie.. Good memories. Donald was my idol when I was a kid, bless 'im.

  • It all went wrong for England in the 2008 series.

  • Wasim Akram, Waqar Younis, Allan Donald, Pollock, Mcgrath, Ambrose, Walsh what an amazing talent the 90's had...if you look at the fast bowlers now...they are nothing compared to these guys.

  • The batsman are so much better these days, the pitches are harder/dryer better prepared, cant deny it is a batsman's game now.

    Its a pretty negative spell of bowling, short at the body from around the wicket. I like Ambrose more than I like White Lightning.

  • I reckon the best fast bowler of the 90's after Wasim Akram

  • ummm as long as you have Curtly Ambrose above them all I'd agree.

  • Donald is a legend !

  • I don't get it.

  • r u an american?

  • No.

  • what don't u get?

  • well, if it was just another random over, there wouldn't be as much fuss. the fact that it is THIS over, with the bowler firing at all cylinders and hitting the target that he wants to consistently, renders this over a viewing

  • But there's not even a wicket or anything.

  • it's one of the ironies of life. when you're bowling at your best, u don't get as many wickets as u should.

    it's just fast, hostile bowling, the kind of which we hardly get to see nowadays. that's y its remarkable

  • A random over of bowling? This is up there with Warne to Gatting or Holding to Boycott. One of the best ever.

  • Angus Fraser: "Ten bloody wickets, and all people talk about is Atherton and Donald".

    You can see why though!

  • Real Cricket. Pity is Unless I subscribe to Sky I will never see cricket like this again! Thank God for YouTube.

  • Great stuff.

    I have to admit though that South Africa's two young quicks Morkel and Steyn have a lot of potential. It will be good to see them develop over the next five years.

  • the most intense bowler ever

  • classic.

  • English Lion eats S A Sprinbok everytime.