Mind-blowing facts about cricket

[CricCrazyNick]

1. Glenn McGrath has more international wickets than runs scored !!

The Australian pace bowler got 756 runs scored and 944 wickets in Combined Test and ODI cricket.

It was easier for him to take a wicket than scoring a run !!

2. Australia is the only team to lose an ODI after scoring 350+ runs batting first.

And they have lost it 3 times !! Twice against India and once against South Africa. They have also lost 7 ODI batting first & scoring 330+.

Only two other team have lost an ODI after scoring 330 batting first.


3. Muttiah Muralitharan and Chaminda Vaas are the bowling pair to claim the most international wickets (Test/ODI/T20I combined)

The duo has 1606 wickets between them in the 348 matches played together !!

They are followed by Warne/McGrath pair with 1421 wickets in 243 matches.
The most lethal opening bowling pair in the history of cricket will be a tie between these guys.

Wasim Akram (cricketer)/Waqar Younis (cricketer) with 1147 wickets in 258 matches

and Curtly Ambrose/ Courtney Walsh with 1027 wickets in 207 matches played together.

5. Sachin Tendulkar (cricketer) is the only batsman to involve in two 10,000+ runs aggregate partnerships in international cricket.

Sachin - Ganguly scored 12400 runs @51.45 average, including 38 century partnerships.

Sachin - Dravid scored 11037 runs @47.98 average, including 31 century partnerships.

He's also the only batsman to involve in 150 century partnerships in cricket.

However the highest aggregate and innings partnership is between the Sri Lankan legends Kumar Sangakkara and Mahela Jayawardene

13356 runs at 47.87 in 292 innings with a highest of 624 against SA !!

6. No English batsman has scored above 6000 runs in ODI and none feature in Top 50 run scorers list.

Even 2 Zimbabweans (Flower brothers) are present in the list which is dominated by Asians.

7. Steve Waugh has more ODI wickets (195) than Imran Khan, Jason Gillespie or Dale Steyn !!

8. West Indies never lost a Test series from 1980 to 1995 for 15 years !!

And New Zealand never won a Test series from 1930 till 1970 for 40 years !!

9. Sachin Tendulkar is the only individual player to score 6000+ runs and 20 hundreds against single opponent team at international cricket. And he has achieved this against Australia !!

10. Australia have played 7 world cup semi finals, won all of them and reached most number of finals.

South Africa have played 4 world cup semi finals, and lost all of them. They are the only team in Top 8 to never reach a WC final.


11. In ODI, Sachin Tendulkar was a better bowler against Australia than Shane Warne against India !!

Sachin vs Australia: 20 wickets at average 44.30. Economy 5.06 and Best of 5/32.

Warne vs India: 15 wickets at average 56.26. Economy 5.19 and best of 3/38.


12. Shahid Afridi is the 5th highest ODI wicket taker, and has more wickets than any non Asian bowler!

He's also one among 3 players to score more than 7500 runs + take 250 wickets + 100 catches, along with Jayasurya and Kallis.


13. Wilfred Rhodes, the English cricketer between 1898 - 1930 has following first class record !!

Matches 1110

Runs 39969

HS 267*

Batting Average 30.81

58 x 100

197 x 50

Catches 765

Wickets 4204

Best 9/24

Bowling Average 16.72

287 x 5 wickets in an innings

68 x 10 wickets in a match



14. Jonty Rhodes is the only player to take 5 catches in a single ODI.

He did it against West Indies at Mumbai in 1993. He won the man of the match award for his brilliant fielding and 40 runs scored.


15. The two incidents mentioned happened in a time span of less than one month, during Zimbabwe Tour of Sri Lanka 2001-02.

In the first ODI, Zimbabwe were put into bat first and reduced to 37/8 in 15 overs with Chaminda Vaas' best bowling in an ODI ever of 8-3-19-8. All 8 batsmen fell to Vaas and he was on the verge for a clean sweep of 10 wickets with 2 overs remaining for him. And then, the Captain Jayasurya makes a bowling change in next over by pulling back Zoysa and handing over to Murali. Then, this happens !!

He dismisses the two remaining tail-enders in just 3 deliveries and denies Vaas from claiming an all 10!

(nevertheless, Vass' 8/19 remains best bowling in an ODI innings till date)


Forward a month and the test series had began. In 2nd test, 1st Innings, this time it was Muralitharan on a roll who reduced Zimbabwe to 234/9 with a magnificient spell of 40-19-51-9. All 9 wickets had fallen to him and the last two batsmen (Friend and Olonga, whom he had dismissed him in 3 deliveries in above match) were facing him. The duo managed to survive Murali for 6 overs scoring just 3 runs. The Spin master was on the verge of creating history and just 1 wicket stood between him and Jim Lakers legendary 10/53. And then (again) captain Jayasurya brings back Vaas (destiny or ..) for a second spell. And then, Vass claim the last Wicket to denied murli to get All 10

 

[UN talkz]

The second one is incorrect
England also lost against India last year after scoring 351.

 

[CricCrazyNick]

The second one is incorrect
England also lost against India last year after scoring 351.

Okey

 

[Ab Fan]

Some incredible facts. Well done!

 

[DRsohail]

Incredible.

 

[Ozymandiasza]

Regarding number 2 - SA vs Aus:

371 and 434 have been chased.

 

[EliteCynical]

The second one is incorrect
England also lost against India last year after scoring 351.

Also West Indies scored 356 (the Evin Lewis game) and lost to england who won by D/L.

 

[Hitman]

On 12th January 1964, Indian spinner Bapu Nadkarni bowled 21 consecutive maiden overs vs England at Chennai.

His figures were 32-27-5-0 which is an economy rate of 0.15 per over which is the lowest of all bowlers where 10 or more overs were bowled.

 

[Arham_PakFan]

Good thread.I didn't know about a few of those facts..

 

[King Kong]

11. In ODI, Sachin Tendulkar was a better bowler against Australia than Shane Warne against India !!

Sachin vs Australia: 20 wickets at average 44.30. Economy 5.06 and Best of 5/32.

Warne vs India: 15 wickets at average 56.26. Economy 5.19 and best of 3/38.

LOL. Warne has poor stats in tests too against India both at home and away. Would Kohli be regarded as the greatest batsman if he averaged 60 in tests overall by the end of his career but about 20 in England (IN, not AGAINST)?

 

[R3verse Swing]

Tendulkar's first ever international match was playing for Pakistan, under Imran Khan. (Substitute fielder).

 

[Sidilicious]

He treated Warne like a part-timer both in Australia and in India.

One explanation.

Actually, it was not just Sachin. Sidhu and Azhar were 2 of the greatest players of spin. India vs Aus 98 series was the series that got me hooked on to test cricket, and I remember that series very well. It was not Tendulkar who started taking Warne apart, but it was Sidhu took the first charge. Sidhu treated Warne disdainfully, coming out of the crease and whacking Warne down the ground. Azhar did what he did, manoeuvring Warne with his wrists beautifully.

I sometimes look at the technique of the cricketers of this era handling spin, and wonder how many wickets would Warne have gotten had he been bowling to these chumps.

 

[imshally81]

Tendulkar's first ever international match was playing for Pakistan, under Imran Khan. (Substitute fielder).

Greatest fact ever...

 

[gazza619]

Surprising facts about cricket or cricketers

I was streaming through the 1992 WC stats today and found a shocking stat which I am pretty sure most people wouldn't have known or remembered.

Did you know that Inzi had scored 123 runs in 8 league matches of the 1992 WC at an average of 15. It was thanks to his 60 in the semi final and 42 in the final that he got claimed to be one of the key figures of the winning campaign. Even after his heroics his final numbers were only 225 runs at an average of 22 which was pretty low by any standards.

You could perhaps use this thread to share random facts about cricket or cricketers which you think most people would find surprising. Apologies to Mods if there is already a thread similar to this.

 

[therealAB]

Jason Gillespie was considered a genuine contender to Glenn McGrath for the no.11 position when he first came into the team. In his final test he scored a double hundred vs Bangladesh

 

[Hitman]

I was streaming through the 1992 WC stats today and found a shocking stat which I am pretty sure most people wouldn't have known or remembered.

Did you know that Inzi had scored 123 runs in 8 league matches of the 1992 WC at an average of 15. It was thanks to his 60 in the semi final and 42 in the final that he got claimed to be one of the key figures of the winning campaign. Even after his heroics his final numbers were only 225 runs at an average of 22 which was pretty low by any standards.

You could perhaps use this thread to share random facts about cricket or cricketers which you think most people would find surprising. Apologies to Mods if there is already a thread similar to this.

The man averages 23 odd in 5 World Cups he played. You can have 1 or 2 bad World Cups, but to average 23 in 5 World Cups, that says a lot about the player.

 

[Thunderbolt14]

6. No English batsman has scored above 6000 runs in ODI and none feature in Top 50 run scorers list.

10. Australia have played 7 world cup semi finals, won all of them and reached most number of finals.

I think these are the only two from the original post that need to be updated

 

[ufcfan]

Australia lost SF of the last WC

 

[sweep_shot]

Some interesting facts.

I am not surprised at McGrath's figures. He almost never needed to bat as he played for an ATG team.

 

[andy0204]

South Africa never lost away test series from 2007 to 2015.

 

[gazza619]

1. Azhar Ali started as a spinner and then turned into a front line batsman.

2. Shahid Afridi used to be bowl medium pace in under 19 cricket. Once he was bowling leg spin in the nets and Haroon Rasheed watched him bowl. Thereafter Haroon advised him to take up spin bowling.

 

[gazza619]

The man averages 23 odd in 5 World Cups he played. You can have 1 or 2 bad World Cups, but to average 23 in 5 World Cups, that says a lot about the player.

I guess that tells you that if someone has failed in 2 consecutive World Cups, the chances are that person will fail in every WC thereafter.

 

[Thunderbolt14]

I guess that tells you that if someone has failed in 2 consecutive World Cups, the chances are that person will fail in every WC thereafter.

It doesn’t tell you that though? It was true in this case, may not be true in other cases

 

[MMHS]

I would like to add few mind blowing stats from olden days of cricket, from English County/FC Cricket.

1. AP (Titch) Freeman, a leggi played 18 seasons for Kent, in 23 years and took 3,732 FC wickets - that's average of 200 wickets per season and he took 300+ FC wickets in a season twice. He had 386 5fors and 140 10fors - that's average 18 5fors/season and 9 10fors/season. In his peak year - he took 35 5fors, and 23 10fors!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

2. Frank Wooley played almost 1000 FC games over 33 years and scored close to 60K runs. Just to add to that, he bowled almost 100K balls as well and took 2000+ wickets. His stats includes 145 FC hundreds and 132 5fors.

3. JT (Jack) Hearne bowled medium pace and he played FC cricket for 35 years and took 3000K+ wickets - last season as 56 years young man ..... and took 100+ wickets, bowling close to 1000 overs!!!!!

4. Sir Jack (Hobbs), played FC cricket for 29 years, of which 5 were wasted by WWI. He was from working class and started career first in a grocery store, then debuted in FC cricket at 23, then lost his best 5 years (between age of 32 to 36) to war - still ended up scoring 61K FC runs with 199 hundreds and close to 300 50s. He celebrated 50th birthday in his penultimate season .... and scored 2500+ runs that summer. Considering the war and a delayed start, he lost around 8 to 10 years of FC career, otherwise that 61K runs could have been 80K+!!!!!

5. Dr. WG, played FC cricket for 43 seasons - last one at 60, and scored 50K+ runs, took 2800+ wickets and that time he completed his studies in medicine, was a practitioner physician and scored more non FC runs in side games!!!!!

6. CP Mead was a Hampshire southpaw, who scored 56K FC runs, but wasn't considered a proper Test bat - ended up playing 17 Tests in a Test career spanned 18 years!!!!

7. Charlie Grimmett was an Aussie leggi, born in New Zealand. He wasn't in good terms with Bradman, so when DG became Captain, he dropped Grimmett from AUS squad. Grimmett went back to Sheffield Shield and broke seasonal bowling record at the age of 46, bowling close to 800, 8 balls overs in Australian summer. He was expecting a come back to AUS squad for the Ashes of 1939-40 summer, a year later - unfortunately, didn't happen as the WW II broke out a month before ENG was supposed to start their journey. Grimmett kept his hope of representing Australia again and kept playing FC cricket till 1941, until Australia also got involved in WWII and FC cricket stopped. To not everyone's surprise - Grimmett went back to Wellington, to play club cricket and keep himself fit, ...... just in case if war ends.

8. Syd Barnes was a bit rebellion and a true professional - he would play for whom pays him most. Over his 38 years of FC career, he played 134 FC games, of which 27 in Test cricket, and ended up with 700+ FC wickets at around 17. However, most of his time was spent playing League cricket in Lancashire, Birmingham ... and exhibition games - an unofficial record tells that guy might have taken 12,000+ wickets in league cricket over a cricket career lasting ..... 58 years - yes, he played his last professional (club) game at the age of 74!!!!!!!

Finally, the guy John Langridge, played FC cricket for 27 years, scored 36K+ runs and ...... never played a Test Match. The guy was a bit unlucky as well - called twice for Test squad, only to be denied the opportunity by the great war. But, it didn't kill his spirit - guy retired from FC cricket at 48, passed MCC Umpiring certification ... and finally stood in a Test in 1960. He kept on umpiring till his late 70s, and stood in his last International (ODI) at the age of 70 (1979). After 25 years of umpiring, guy finally decided to rest - but professionally..... as amateur, he ran a cricket school for kids till he was 89, couple of weeks before his death.