5 cricket records that you may not know

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. Many of us know about Bradman’s 99.94 Test average or Sachin’s 100 international centuries.Every cricket fan has an idea about Murali’s international wicket haul or Sir Jack Hobbs first class records. But there are few records that we may have not observed of certain players or teams.It is 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 This further stimulates the interest of fans in the game.When these unpredictable performances amalgamate with the numbers that are such an integral part of cricket, we get a few less observed records. Let’s take a look at 5 of the most less observed cricket records.

#5 Most consecutive matches as a captain including all formats

Azhar was one of the most successful captain of India

Any guesses for this stat? You might say Ricky Ponting or Greame Smith or even MS Dhoni, but Mohammed Azharuddin, who has captained India in 128 consecutive matches from 29 Nov 1991 to 4 July 1996. Amongst those were, 30 were test matches and 98 were ODI matches.

Here is a table that shows the top five captains:

Player as a captain	Team	Matches	From	Until
M Azharuddin	India	128	29 November 1991	4 July 1996
Mahela Jayawardena	Sri Lanka	100	19 March 2006	10 October 2008
H Cronje	South Africa	99	25 Novemebr 1994	30 January 1998
A Campbell	Zimbabwe	95	26 August 1996	29 October 1999
H Cronje	South Africa	83	26 February 1998	27 March 2000

#4 Only bowler who has taken a wicket in his first over in all three formats

He had a dream debut in all three formats of the game

Sri Lanka’s Shaminda Ernga is the only bowler who has taken his first wicket in his first over in all three formats. He has played 16 test matches, 17 ODIs and T-20 matches for Sri Lanka so far. He has taken 52 wickets in test matches, 20 wickets in ODI matches and 3 wickets in t20 games .

Here is table that includes his first victims in all three formats:

Format	Victim	Ball of the first over	Opposition	Year
Test	Shane Watson	1st	Australia	2011
ODI	Brad Haddin	2nd	Australia	2011
T20	Gautam Gambhir	4th	India	2012

#3 Only player to win four consecutive Man of the match awards in ODI cricket

Sourav Ganguly is the only player with consecutive four MoMs

Sourav Ganguly is the only player who had won four consecutive man of the match awards in ODI cricket till this day. He earned his fourth MoM against Pakistan in Toronto. Ganguly had played 311 ODI matches for India in which he had scored 11363 runs at an average of 41.02.

Here is a list of players who have won three or more consecuitve man of the matches in ODI cricket.

Player Name	Country	No.of MoMs	Year
Sourav Ganguly	India	4	1997
M Amarnath	India	3	1983
G Gooch	England	3	1987
A De Silva	Sri Lanka	3	1996
Gary Kirsten	South Africa	3	1996
A De Silva	Sri Lanka	3	1997
L Klusener	South Africa	3	1999
A Flintoff	England	3	2003
Imran Farhat	Pakistan	3	2003
Shoaib Malik	Pakistan	3	2004
M Mortaza	Bangladesh	3	2006
Suresh Raina	India	3	2008

#2 Only bowler with hat-tricks in both ODI and t20 formats

Brett Lee was one of the best fast bowlers of world cricket

Brett Lee is the only bowler who has taken a hat-trick in both ODI and Test cricket. Lee was a match winner for Australia during his days. He has played 76 test matches and 221 ODIs for Australia.

He had taken 310 wickets in test matches and 380 wickets in ODIs. In terms of appearances, he has played 25 T-20 matches for Australia and taken 28 wickets. Lee took his ODI hat-trick in the 2003 World Cup and his t20 hat-trick during the 2007 World Cup.

Here is a table that highlights details of his ODI and t20 hat-tricks.

Format	Opposition	Victims	Venue	Season
ODI	Kenya	KO Otieno, BJ Patel, DO Obuya	Durban	2003-04
T20	Bangladesh	Shakib Al Hasan, M Mortaza, Alok Kapali	Cape Town	2007-08

#1 Fastest 50 for India in ODIs

Ajit Agarkar is the player who had scored fastest 50 for India in ODIs

Can you guess about this stat? Probably, many of you might say Virender Sehwag or Yuvraj Singh but there is a surprise, the batsman who has scored fastest 50 for India in ODIs till this day is Ajit Agarkar. He had scored this fastest fifty in just 21 balls against Zimbabwe in 2000 at Rajkot. In this innings, he had scored 67* runs in 25 balls by hitting seven fours and four sixes. He was mainly known as a bowler and he had taken 288 wickets in 191 matches while representing India.

Here is a list that shows fastest 50 scored by an Indian player in all three formats.