5 players with most golden ducks in ODIs

Nobody likes to get out on the very first ball that he faces in a match whether it is an international match or a domestic match. Gone are those days when we used to routinely see a “Golden Duck” on the scorecard when a player got dismissed the very first ball that he faced without scoring any runs.

Here is a list of the 5 players who have the most golden ducks in cricket:

5) Moin Khan - 11

Moin Khan, who played ODI cricket for Pakistan for 14 years from 1990-2004, is the only wicket-keeper batsman to feature in this list. He was the one who held the Pakistan’s middle-order and lower-order together.

He is remembered for playing some aggressive knocks and finishing off the innings in style. Under his captaincy, Pakistan won their first Asia Cup in the year 2000 by beating Sri Lanka in the finals thanks to his blistering knock.

Being a middle-order batsman in 183 innings that he had played, he has been dismissed on 11 occasions for a golden duck.

4) Muttiah Muralitharan - 11 times

Muttiah Muralitharan was among the greatest spinners the world has ever seen, be that in Tests or One-dayers. There are a numerous amount of records to his name. He is the leading wicket-taker in both formats (Tests and ODIs), and the record set by him seems unbreakable at the moment.

Interestingly he is the only bowler to have taken 10 wickets a match against all the Test-playing nations. Being a tail-ender, he used to come to bat at positions 9, 10 and 11 and he has been dismissed for 11 golden ducks in the 162 innings that he played.

At the same time, he also holds the record for the most number of ducks (59) across all formats.

3) Javagal Srinath (INDIA) - 11

Considered India’s bowling spearhead in his heyday, he was unarguably India’s fastest bowler and was one of the best pace bowlers during his peak. He took everyone by surprise when he bowled the fastest ball by an Indian pacer (154.5 km/h) against Pakistan in the 1999 World Cup which was held in England.

He ended up being the second highest wicket-taker from India in ODIs next to Anil Kumble. He, being a tail-ender, was tried at all positions except for an opening pair. In his batting career of 121 innings, he was dismissed for 11 golden ducks.

Simultaneously, he also holds the record for second most number of not-outs (9) in World Cups.

2) Shahid Afridi (Pakistan) - 12 times

Shahid Afridi (PAKISTAN)

“Boom Boom” Afridi as we popularly know him, came to limelight in just his second ODI against Sri Lanka in 1996 when he scored a ton off just 37 balls - a record which remained for more than 17 years until it was broken by Corey Anderson in January 2014 against the Windies.

With his powerful hitting, Afridi had the ability to turn the game around in his team's favour. He used to play attacking cricket and always had a go against the bowlers from ball one which often led to him throwing his wicket away.

He has been dismissed the very first ball on 12 occasions in 369 innings, mainly because of his go for all or nothing approach in his batting.

1) Lasith Malinga - 13 times

Lasith Malinga (SRI LANKA)

Lasith Malinga or ‘Slinga Malinga’ as he is popularly known, is the only bowler in the world to take 3 hat-tricks in One-day internationals including the 2 hat-tricks in the 2007 World Cup against the Proteas and in the 2011 World Cup versus Kenya.

He tops the list of most number of golden ducks (13 from 102 innings) in ODIs.