ON February 10, 2002 during the second Test match between Pakistan and West Indies in Sharjah, Waqar Younis became the 13th bowler to claim 350 wickets in Test annals. By dismissing Ryan Hinds he became the third Pakistani bowler to reach 350 wickets in Test cricket.

Waqar has a fantastic Test strike rate of a wicket in 42 balls and an equally good strike rate in the limited overs variety of the game.

He made his One-day International debut in the 1989-90 during the Sharjah Champions Trophy competitions and was immediately dubbed as the fastest bowler in the tournament, despite the presence of Wasim Akram and Malcolm Marshall. It is an interesting coincidence that both Waqar Younis and Sachin Tendulkar, the cricketing wonder lads of subcontinent made their Test debut in the Karachi Test in November 1989.

Fred Trueman was the first bowler to take 300 wickets in Test cricket. He reached the total at The Oval in his 65th Test on 15 August 1964 when he had Neil Hawke of Australia caught at slip by Colin Cowdrey. Dennis Lillee was the first bowler to take 350 wickets in Test cricket.

The first bowler to take 400 Test wickets was Richard Hadlee on February 4 1990 against India on his home ground at Lancaster Park, Christchurch. He reached this landmark at the age of 38 after 80 Tests spread over a 17 year career.

The thirteen players, who have taken over 350 Test wickets, comprise of 10 right-arm fast/fast medium bowlers, one left-arm medium-fast bowler (Wasim Akram), one right-arm off-spinner (M Muralitharan) and one right-arm leg-spinner (S K Warne).

But above all, these bowlers represent the elite in the field of Test cricket. Therefore it is interesting to compare them as a group and see what trends emerge.

 

CAREER TABLE

Salient Feature

* These thirteen players consist of three from the West Indies, three from Australia, three from Pakistan and one each from England India, Sri Lanka and New Zealand.

* Sir Richard Hadlee is the eldest and Muttiah Muralitharan is the youngest. Sadly Malcolm Marshall in now no more with us.

* Imran Khan had the longest career, 21 years.

* Courtney Walsh played the most Tests and took the most wickets. * Kapil Dev was the youngest player (27) to take his 300th Test wicket, and Richard Hadlee at age 35 was the oldest.

* Kapil Dev took the most first innings wickets, (299) but has the highest average of 31.20, while Courtney Walsh has taken the most second innings wickets, 240.

* Glenn McGrath has the lowest first innings average, 21.27 while Malcolm Marshall has the lowest second innings average. 19.18.

* Kapil Dev has the highest first innings average 31.20, while Ian Botham has the highest second innings average 28.75.

* Courtney Walsh has the biggest differential of 8.73 between his first (28.48) and second innings averages (19.75). And this perhaps emphasises his greater reliance on wearing second innings pitches to get his wickets.

* Sri Lankan off-spinner Muttiah Muralitharan has a differential of only 2.8.

* Ten players have a lower bowling average in the second innings. However, Botham, McGrath and Lillee have higher averages in the second innings.

* Three players, Malcolm Marshall, Curtly Ambrose and Courtney Walsh (all West Indian fast bowlers) have averaged less than 20 for their second innings wickets. The low second innings averages of Malcolm Marshall and Courtney Walsh also reflect their efficiency at taking wickets in the second innings. Both Marshall and Walsh took only 53% of their total wickets in the first innings, compared to 68% for Botham and Kapil Dev, and 66.5 % for Hadlee.

* Shane Warne has the highest percentage of top order (1-3) dismissals (23.5%).

* Kapil Dev had the lowest percentage of middle order dismissals 31.3%.

* Glenn McGrath has the highest percentage of low order (8 - 11) dismissals (25.7%), Courtney Walsh, and Wasim Akram had the most even spread of dismissals in the batting order, with each averaging close to 33% for each category.

* Waqar Younis has the highest percentage of LBW dismissals with 29.1%, closely followed by Wasim Akram with 29.0%.

 

AVERAGE VARIATION TABLE

Salient Feature

* Ian Botham has the lowest average for 100 Wickets with 18.97, followed by Waqar Younis with 19.5. Muttiah Muralitharan has the highest average with 31.50 followed closely by Imran Khan with 31.45.

* Waqar Younis has the lowest average for 200 Wickets with 20.61, while Kapil Dev at 29.34 had the highest.

* Malcolm Marshall has the lowest average at 300 Wickets with 20.89. Kapil Dev at 29.05 again has the highest.

* Curtly Ambrose has the lowest average at 400 Wickets with 20.97, while Kapil Dev at 29.66 has the highest.

* Waqar Younis recorded the lowest average of the group. His average was just 18.53 when he took his 157th wicket. (Averages recorded prior to taking 100 wickets where not taken into consideration)

* Kapil Dev was the only player in the group who did not reduce his average below 25.00 at any stage after taking his 100th wicket.

* Imran Khan had the largest drop in average, by reducing his average by 9.97, from 31.45 at 100 wickets to 21.48 when he took his 282nd wicket. However, Richard Hadlee and Muttiah Muralitharan also had averages of over 30 at 100 wickets, and have reduced them by 7.97, and 7.79 respectively.

 

TESTS PLAYED AT MILESTONES

Salient Feature

* Ian Botham was the fastest to 100 wickets, taking just 19 Tests, while Wasim Akram was the slowest taking 30 Tests.

* Dennis Lillee and Waqar Younis were the fastest to 200 wickets (38 Tests). Courtney Walsh was the slowest and took 58 Tests to reach 200 wickets.

* Dennis Lillee was the fastest to 300 wickets taking 56 Tests, closely followed by Muttiah Muralitharan with 58 Tests. Kapil Dev was the slowest and took 83 Tests.

* Muttiah Muralitharan after taking 27 Tests to reach 100 wickets, then took only another 15 Tests to reach 200 wickets, a further 16 Tests to reach 300 wickets, and only another 14 Tests to reach 400. He therefore took 45 Tests to take 300 wickets and progress from 100 to 400 wickets, and is by far the fastest of any in the group.

* Courtney Walsh is the only player to take 500 wickets.

 

350 WICKETS WITH LEAST NUMBER OF BALLS

Salient Feature

* Shane Warne has taken 50 wickets in a calendar year on most occasions (5). However, Richard Hadlee, Curtly Ambrose and Wasim Akram did not take 50 wickets in a calendar year.

* Dennis Lillie’s record of 85 wickets in a calendar year was the only year that he achieved this mark.

* Richard Hadlee has taken 5 wickets in an innings the most (36), which is the current Test record. Shane Warne has achieved this mark the least (20).

* Muttiah Muralitharan has taken 10 wickets in a match the most times with 10, which is a current Test record. Kapil Dev has achieved this mark only twice, the least. Curtly Ambrose has the best economy rate of 2.31 runs per over while Waqar Younis had the high economy rate of 3.20 runs per over, and the best strike rate of a wicket every 42.46 balls.

Other statistics from the group, (which are not shown on the table).

Muttiah Muralitharan, Richard Hadlee and Kapil Dev have taken the most wickets in an innings. (9/51, 9/52 and 9-83 respectively); Muttiah Muralitharan has taken the most wickets in a match. (16/220); Richard Hadlee has taken the most wickets in a 3 Test series (33); Malcolm Marshall has taken the most wickets in a 5 Test series (35); Imran Khan has taken the most wickets in a 6 Test series (40); Muttiah Muralitharan, Kapil Dev, and Ian Botham each conceded over 200 runs in an innings.

 

350 OR WICKETS IN TEST CRICKET

All figures complete Upto March 10, 2002. Performances of Shane Warne and Glenn McGrath in the Second Test against South Africa are included.