Now that Sanga retire :

                   

hahahahaha : that was faster than Usain Bolt !

                                           

                       

dillinger will prove that Best pair has nothing to do with Wins 

Sanath jayasuriya coupled up as allrounder as well.

For a change instead of dilly i have gathered a few stats that sound quite impressive.

290 odi wickets
he hit 236 sixers
Almost 12000 runs in ODI
Almost 400 odi matches
Fastest 50,in just 16 balls.

many more that i couldn't dig through.

Sanga is the best should you purely consider lefties as batsmen alone.A legend !!

Sobers
Lara
Sanga
Kallicharran
Border/ChanderPaul
::LOL::

I think Allan Border can feel really hard done by getting just 5% of the votes. Of all left-handed batsman to play 15+ Tests, Border had the highest average away from home (56.57). He averaged 65.06 in England and 53.06 in West Indies. He was just as impressive in the sub-continent, averaging 54.51. He averaged 40+ in 12 of his 16 seasons and played on much tougher wickets.

Ahh..I forgot Matt Haydo as well.
A century every 3.5 tests, strike rate of 62, average 53.3, opened the batting.

@dilly : another value addition to your post.
Border holds the record for most 50s in test cricket with 63 fifties from 156 test matches.

but in terms of 50+ Scores Sachin holds the record with 95 as against 90 by Border.

We should have a poll System maybe.

Lara averages about 54 against the to teams while Sanga averages about 52 runs. Lara is the best left hand batsman of this generation.

To simply look at their overall averages to determine who was the better batsman is poor research and fails to take into consideration a wide range of factors. The biggest factor that is unfair to Sangakkara is that he played 36% of his matches (48 games) as the designated wicketkeeper - a duty that takes its toll on the mind and body. Despite this, Sangakkara still averaged 40.48 when playing as a wicketkeeper. For some context as to how impressive a feat this is, only Andy Flower (53.70), Adam Gilchrist (47.60) and Les Ames (43.40) have a higher average (minimum 35 Tests) when playing as a designated keeper.

When Sangakkara played as a batsman only, he averaged a staggering 67.39 in 85 Tests. To put this into historical context, of all batsman to have played a minimum of 20 Tests, only Sir Donald Bradman (99.94) had a higher average.

Sangakkara is also one of the rare few that did not have a distinct home/away split. He averaged 55.62 at home and 53.26 away. Lara averaged 58.65 at home but dipped to 47.80 in away Tests.

It should also be noted that Sangakkara was remarkably consistent throughout his career, averaging 40+ in 13 of his 16 seasons. By comparison, Lara averaged 40+ in 11 of his 16 seasons.

Their averages against the top 7 teams in the world are almost identical, Sanga averaged 52.89 to Lara's 52.53. However, when Sanga played strictly as a batsman, he averaged 60.16.

...

As an aside, Graeme Pollock also deserves to be on the short list of greatest lefties.