5 unexpected record-holders in cricket which may surprise you

‘Boom Boom Afridi’ is one of the best all-rounders of world cricket

Undoubtedly, like many other sports, cricket is also a game of numbers and records. There are many well-known records that most of us have heard of.It is also often said that “Cricket is a game of glorious uncertainties”. One cannot really predict the outcome of a game until the last ball has been bowled. Often we get to see quite a few unpredictable performances that really bring a whole new level of excitement to the game.When stereotypes are broken, the unpredictable nature of the game is summed up; and the result of these performances are that a few records are held by some cricketers with whose names those records would never have been associated.Let’s take a look at 5 of the most surprising cricket record-holders that may surprise you.

#1 Shahid Afridi - Longest ODI career without lasting 100 balls in a match

‘Boom Boom Afridi’ is one of the best all-rounders of world cricket

Can you ever imagine that a player who has played almost 400 ODIs for a team as an all-rounder and scored six centuries and 39 half-centuries has never faced 100 balls in his entire career in an innings?

The maximum balls he had ever faced in an innings was 94, and in that innings he had scored 109 runs against India in Toronto on September 19, 1998. Notwithstanding, Shahid Afridi has scored 8064 runs and taken 395 wickets for Pakistan.

Here is a table that shows the top records created and held by Shahid Afridi in ODIs in his entire career.

No.Details of records of ‘Boom Boom’ Afridi
13rd fastest century in history of ODI cricket: 37 balls against Sri Lanka
2Most sixes in ODIs: 351 sixes in 398 matches
3Most MoM awards grabbed by any Pakistani Player: 32 times
4Highest strike rate in ODIs (Min.100 matches played) : 117.00
5Most wickets in a single World Cup as a captain: 22 wickets in 2011 World Cup
6Only player in history to take 350 wickets and score 8000 runs
7Only player who had taken five wickets and scored 50 runs in match three times
8Longest six hit by any player in history of ODI cricket : 158 meters against South Africa on March 17, 2013

#2 Peter Siddle - Only bowler in the history of cricket to take a hat-trick on birthday

Peter Siddle has been a consistent bowler for Australia in test matches

Peter Siddle is the only bowler in the history of cricket to have taken a hat-trick on his birthday. He had grabbed this hat-trick on his 26th birthday against England at Brisbane on 25th November, 2010.

It was the 38th hat-trick in test cricket. Peter Siddle has played 58 tests for Australia so far and taken 200 wickets. His best figures in a test match innings came in the same match, which is 6/54. He had also been named ‘ICC Emerging Player of the Year’ in 2009. His first wicket in test cricket was of Sachin Tendulkar.

Alastair Cook, Matt Prior and Stuart Broad had been Siddle’s three victims on the birthday special hattrick.

#3 Ravichandran Ashwin - Only bowler to have dismissed all opposition players in a test series

Ravichandran Ashwin – India’s best spinner at the moment by a mile

Ravi Ashwin had achieved this special landmark in the series against Australia in 2013 which was in India, and this was the first and only time that a bowler achieved this amazing feat. He had taken 29 wickets in 4 matches in that series. India had won the series 4-0.

Currently, Ashwin is the leader of India’s bowling attack in all three formats of the game.

During that series, Australia had used 16 players in 4 test matches and Ashwin had dismissed all of them once or more than once. Here is a table that shows details related to it.

Player NameTest match no. in which Ashwin had dismissed a playerTotal no.of times a player had been dismissed by Ashwin in the series
Ed Cowan1st, 3rd & 4th4 times
D Warner1st & 2nd2 times
P Hughes1st, 2nd, 3rd & 4th5 times
S Watson1st2 times
M Wade1st. 2nd & 4th3 times
Henriques1st1 time
N Lyon1st1 time
M Clarke1st1 time
Pattinson1st & 2nd2 times
M Starc1st1 time
Maxwell2nd1 time
Doherty3rd1 time
Haddin3rd1 time
S Smith4th1 time
Johnson4th1 time
P Siddle4th2 times

#4 Chris Martin and B.S. Chandrashekhar - More Test wickets than runs

Chris Martin quit test cricket as the third highest wicket-taker for New Zealand

Probably many of you have not noticed this amazing record held by both of these players. Chris Martin and Bhagwath Chandrasekhar had taken more test wickets in their career than the test runs scored.

Chris Martin had represented New Zealand while B.S. Chandrashekhar had represented India and their highest scores in a test innings was 12* and 22 respectively.

Here is a table that includes all the details of runs scored and wickets taken by those two players in test cricket in their careers.

Player nameMatchesRuns scoredWickets
B.S. Chandrashekhar58167242
Chris Martin71123233

#5 Mahela Jayawardena - Only batsman to score centuries in World Cup semi final and final matches

Mahela Jayawardena is the player who had taken highest catches, counting all formats

Mahela Jayawardena is the only player to have scored centuries in both the semi-final and final match of a World Cup, although the two came in two different World Cups. He had scored a century in a semi-final match in the World Cup of 2007 and then a century in a final match in the World Cup of 2011.

Sri Lanka had won the semi-final of World Cup 2007 due to Mahela Jayawardena’s century. His innings in the final of World Cup 2011 was outperformed by India’s batsmen Gautam Gambhir and MS Dhoni, and due to this Sri Lanka had lost that final. Mahela Jayawardena had scored 12650 runs in 448 ODI matches for Sri Lanka.

Here is a table that includes all the details related to those two centuries of Mahela Jayawardena.

MatchOppositionRunsBallsVenueDate
Semi-final of 2007 World CupNew Zealand115109JamaicaApril 24, 2007
Final of 2011 World CupIndia103*88MumbaiApril 2, 2011

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Edited by Staff Editor