In ODI cricket, five-wicket hauls are extremely rare. For one bowler to be able to take five wickets is no easy feat. Furthermore, in the entire history of ODI cricket, a five-wicket haul has only been achieved 445 times, or once every 9 games.
Taking a five-wicket haul means a win for the bowler’s team nearly 80% of the time, demonstrating its immense value for any team. Bowlers often say that carrying the match ball and leading a team off the park is one of the best feelings in cricket.
You might remember them for their excellence on the field, or off it. You might remember them swinging the ball around corners or demolishing attacks with their lethal pace. Here are five legends of the game who took just one five-wicket haul for their country.
#5 Imran Khan
Imran Khan’s 175 games for Pakistan resulted in just one five-wicket haul. Khan averaged 26.61 with the ball over his white-ball career, going at just 3.89 runs an over. His ODI career spanned 18 years, from 1974 to 1992, during which he was one of Pakistan's most prolific captains, even winning the 1992 World Cup.
Khan was, and still remains to be, one of the most influential members of Pakistani cricket, transforming the country from a minnow to a world-class team of world beaters. His sole 5-fer came against India at Sharjah, where he claimed the wickets of Ravi Shastri, Kris Srikkanth, Dilip Vengsarkar, Sunil Gavaskar, Mohinder Amarnath and Madan Lal on the way to the figures of 6-14 off his 10 overs.
He came close to repeating the feat three times, but was stranded on four wickets on all of those occasions. Now, Khan has immersed himself into Pakistani politics, where he puts his high educational credentials to good use, doing the people’s work.
#4 Courtney Walsh
Despite his remarkable test career, Courtney Walsh only managed one five-wicket haul to go along his 22 in test match cricket. His career, which spanned 205 ODIs for the West Indies, was marked by his somewhat underwhelming 227 wickets, as compared to his fantastic performance in the longer format of the game.
Walsh had an ODI bowling average of 30.47. His only five-wicket haul in ODI was against Sri Lanka, at the start of his career, in 1986, where he picked up the wickets of Duleep Mendis, Ashantha de Mel, Ravi Ratnayeke, Rumesh Ratnayake and Graeme Labrooy.
He claimed six four-wicket hauls over his career to go along with his lone 5-fer, stats which are a testament to the quality of bowler that he was. Walsh is now the bowling coach for Bangladesh, whose rapid seam bowling improvement can be, at least in part, be attributed to the great man.
#3 Kapil Dev
Kapil Dev’s ODI legacy lies largely in his biggest achievement: the 1983 Cricket World Cup. However, he was also a very handy bowler, taking 253 wickets at just 27.02 runs per wicket.
His career, which spanned 225 matches and 16 years, contained just one five-wicket haul. In 1983, he picked up five Australian wickets, those of Rod Marsh, Ken MacLeay, Kepler Wessels, Tom Hogan and Geoff Lawson in a losing effort at Trent Bridge.
He did however, finish his career with the remarkable economy rate of 3.71. Dev nearly missed out on adding to his only five-wicket haul three times, with three four-wicket hauls over his career.
#2 Zaheer Khan
Zaheer Khan’s career was epitomised by the intense swing he produced, and he put this skill to good use in ODIs, where he averaged 30.11 over his career. From a country not known to produce fine fast bowlers, he was a gem in the rough.
His international career was path breaking for an Indian seamer, as he broke many records with his left arm fast-medium bowling. His only five-wicket haul is against Sri Lanka; he ended with figures of 5 for 42 in in India’s 2007 away tour of Sri Lanka, where he got the wickets of Upul Tharanga, Sanath Jayasuriya, Kumar Sangakkara, Fareez Maharoof and Malinga Bandara in a match winning performance.
Zaheer was a master of picking early wickets with the new white ball, and making the ball reverse (his career spanned a time before two new balls) in later overs. His immaculate action and perfect seam position made him an invaluable asset for India throughout early 2000s. He missed out on increasing his tally of 5-fers seven times, and ended his career with the respectable tally of eight innings with four or more wickets.
#1 Shane Warne
Perhaps the most surprising entry on this list, Shane Warne befuddled batsmen for decades. However, he was only able to claim one 5-fer over his 193-match career, despite ending with an enviable average of 25.82 and 291 wickets in games for Australia. His solitary 5-fer came against the West Indies in 1996 at Sydney, where he dismissed Courtney Walsh (another entrant on the list), Roland Holder, Junior Murray, Nixon McLean and Kenny Benjamin.
Shane Warne was known predominantly for his ripping leg-breaks in test matches, but he was no amateur with the white ball in hand. Not only did Warne show his expertise in getting into the batsmen’s head, he laid a platform for the modern leg-spinner and till date, his versions of the big leg break, the googly, the top-spinner and the flipper are used by bowlers in all forms of the game.
His white ball numbers are almost unmatched by any other spinner, and his tally of 12 four-wicket hauls is the second most for a spinner, after the great Muttiah Muralitharan.
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