Stats: Most maidens in T20s

Praveen Kumar

Bowling a maiden over in itself is a tough task, more so in a T20 format where batsmen will generally be looking to go hell for leather. Here is a list of bowlers who have bowled the most number of maiden overs in T20 cricket. Indian bowler Praveen Kumar tops the list with 17 maidens in the 122 matches he has played. The key to this stat is his ability to swing the ball both ways, which makes it extremely difficult for batsmen to play him upfront, thereby resulting in them choosing to play him out on occasions.

Following him is Alfonso Thomas, a limited overs cricket specialist, whose non-selection to the South African national team has always remained a mystery. Thomas has played only 1 international match for South Africa: a Twenty20 match against Pakistan in 2007. Since then, despite having taken 241 T20 wickets, second only to Lasith Malinga in the all-time wicket-takers list, he has been kept on the sidelines for reasons unknown.

Player	Matches	Maidens
Praveen Kumar	122	17
Alfonso Thomas	208	15
Irfan Pathan	149	13
Samuel Badree	91	11
Morne Morkel	136	11
Lasith Malinga	193	10
Amit Mishra	132	10
Saeed Ajmal	143	10
Dale Steyn	153	10

Note: Stats updated till 23 June 2014.