Satyamdas said:
After you correctly wrote about Dudley being able to beat or trade with Sim's anti-airs, and the fact that it literally only takes 2.7 combos to end Sim's life, I was surprised to see you rate the match that badly for Dudley. I think it's a 5-5 matchup, at worst 5.5-4.5 for Sim. Yeah it can be tough to get in, but Duds has the tools to do so. Patience prevails for Dudley in that matchup and if he gets in and knocks Sim down it can get ugly and end quickly.
All that data on Dhalsim's anti-airs is range and timing specific, Dudley can't use ducking or MGB to gain position, and instant air teleports tend to screw up cross counter half-circle inputs. I gained that data from dozens of losses that I ran back against another skilled dhalsim player, and frankly, it's grasping at straws. It only really works as anti-bait.
For instance, Dhalsim throws a fireball, and I jump over it at mid range, Dhalsim usually would throw a MK to knock me down. At that distance and bait expectations, I can beat it with jMK. But if Dhalsim waits and uses a lower attack to anti-air me, or a yoga sniper, I lose.
In any situation outside of being on top of Dhalsim, Dudley has about a 33% chance of guessing right. Maybe when I'm better at focus attacks the matchup will change, but I definitely think it's Dudley's worst matchup by far. Even Guile I can work by chipping him out with ducking straights, and Seth has worse anti-airs and health. Even if I beat Dhalsim's anti-air, all I've done is gotten within 2 character distances of him, and I still can't use ducking, MGB or cross counter, and if I block, I have to start all over again. And jumping in, beating an anti-air and then ambiguous crossups with thunderbolt isn't going to work more than once against a reasonably smart Dhalsim.
That's why I usually just stick to Fei for the matchup, rekkas and chicken wing on top of his superior normals make a HUGE difference.