Mustafizur Rahman - 4th player to receive 2 Man of the Match awards in his first 2 ODIs

Mustafizur has created history

It would be difficult for any Indian fan to digest the fact that a teenager who made his debut immediately becomes the reason for an ODI series loss for their national team in Bangladesh. But it is true. Mustafizur Rahman is more than two months short of his 20th birthday. And he has destroyed the batting order of the Indian team containing few of the so said best batsmen at present.

5/50 in his first ODI and 6/43 in the second were enough to hand over India losses by 79 runs and 6 wickets and he ended up winning the Man of the Match award in both these games. No surprises. He has set a World record by picking up 5 wickets in his first game and 6 in his second. Thus 11 wickets in career’s first 2 ODI matches. Only other bowler to have taken two five-wicket hauls in his first two ODIs is Brian Vitori for Zimbabwe. He took 10 wickets in his first 2 matches.

Mustafizur Rahman became only the fourth player to be awarded Man of the Match in both of his first two ODI matches, a remarkable feat. The others to have achieved this are listed below.

2 Man of the Match awards in career’s first 2 ODIs

Player	Batting	Bowling	Fielding	Against	Venue	Date
John Edrich (England)	82	-	-	Australia	MCG	05-Jan-71
	90	-	-	India	Leeds	13-Jul-74
Tom Cooper (Netherlands)	80*	-	-	Scotland	Rotterdam	15-Jun-10
	87	1/50	-	Scotland	Rotterdam	01-Jul-10
Brian Vitori (Zimbabwe)	-	5/30	-	Bangladesh	Harare	12-Aug-11
	-	5/20	-	Bangladesh	Harare	14-Aug-11
Mustafizur Rahman (Bangladesh)	0*	5/50	-	India	Dhaka	18-Jun-15
	-	6/43	-	India	Dhaka	21-Jun-15

• John Edrich was Man of the Match in the first ever ODI match on 5th of January 1971 between Australia and England. He wasn’t selected in the next seven ODIs for England. But in his next inclusion, he was again Man of the Match.
• Top Cooper got 3 Man of the Match awards in his first 5 ODIs and 4 in his first 7 ODIs.
• Brian Vitori was also adjudged Man of the Match in his first two matches courtesy of those 5-wicket hauls.

Only four have got consecutive Man of the Match awards in their first two ODIs, but there are 56 others (including associate teams) who got Man of the Match on their ODI debut. Let’s list them, team-wise.

Australia (8)

Player	Year
Merv Hughes	1988
Brendon Julian	1993
Stuart MacGill	2000
Mark Cosgrove	2006
Shaun Marsh	2008
George Bailey	2012
Matthew Wade	2012
Philip Hughes	2013

Bangladesh (3)

Player	Year
Sohag Gazi	2012
Taijul Islam	2014
Mustafizur Rahman	2015

England (13)

Player	Year
John Edrich	1971
Dennis Amiss	1972
Barry Wood	1972
Mike Denness	1973
Chris Tavare	1980
Kim Barnett	1988
Devon Malcolm	1990
Peter Martin	1995
Jeremy Snape	2001
Ian Bell	2004
Alex Wharf	2004
Jonny Bairstow	2011
Stephen Parry	2014

India (2)

Player	Year
Sandeep Patil	1980
Mohit Sharma	2013

New Zealand (1)

Player	Year
Rob Nicol	2011

Pakistan (9)

Player	Year
Abdul Qadir	1983
Manzoor Elahi	1984
Zakir Khan	1984
Saleem Elahi	1995
Shadab Kabir	1996
Shahid Anwar	1996
Shahid Nazir	1996
Nasir Jamshed	2008
Anwar Ali	2013

South Africa (5)

Player	Year
Alan Donald	1991
Mike Rindel	1994
Shaun Pollock	1996
Colin Ingram	2010
Merchant de Lange	2012

Sri Lanka (2)

Player	Year
Shaul Karnain	1984
Dilhara Fernando	2001

West Indies (3)

Player	Year
Desmond Haynes	1978
Hendy Bryan	1999
Fidel Edwards	2003

Zimbabwe (5)

Player	Year
Duncan Fletcher	1983
Andy Flower	1992
Bryan Strang	1995
Terry Duffin	2006
Brian Vitori	2011

For Associate teams

Player	Team	Year
Austin Codrington	Canada	2003
Dean Minors	Bermuda	2006
Eoin Morgan	Ireland	2006
Alex Cusack	Ireland	2007
Chris Foggo	Bermuda	2008
Karun Jethi	Canada	2008
Mohammad Nabi	Afghanistan	2009
Tom Cooper	Netherlands	2010
Usman Ghani	Afghanistan	2014

Totally 60 players have got Man of the Match award on their ODI debut – 51 for full member teams and 9 for associate teams.