5 bowlers who turned into a one-man army for their teams

Muralitharan doesn’t feature in this listCricket is a team game. All the players in the squad have a role to play in the side, even those who don’t make it to the playing eleven. It is the different skillset of the various individual players that combine together to form a team.The same logic goes for the bowling unit. The different kinds of bowlers in a team gel together to form a bowling attack.But sometimes an individual bowler is forced to handle the responsibilities of the entire bowling attack. There have been some memorable instances in cricket when an individual, through his great performances, galvanized his team.So in this slideshow we’ll have a look at the 5 bowlers who turned into a one-man army:-

#5 Harbhajan Singh

Harbhajan Singh destroyed Australia single-handedly in the 2001 series

Though Harbhajan Singh’s Test career is past its peak presently, he was once the most potent weapon of the Indian bowling attack. He has played 104 Tests for India and picked up 417 wickets at an average of 32.46. He has also picked up 263 wickets in 232 ODIs at an average of 33.31.

Harbhajan’s rivalry with the Australians has been a key point of his career. He has managed to raise his game against them and he managed to dismiss Ricky Ponting five times under 12 in the 2001 series, a series in which he turned out to be the nemesis of the visitors.

In that series, he picked up 32 wickets in 3 games when none of his teammates crossed the tally of 3 wickets. The difference between him and the team’s second highest wicket-taker was a whopping 29 wickets. It was also the series in which he became the first Indian bowler to pick up a Test hat-trick. He surely turned out to be a one man army in that series.

#4 Richard Hadlee

Hadlee is one of the game’s greatest ever all-rounders

Richard Hadlee was one of the four great allrounders of his generation that also included Kapil Dev, Ian Botham and Imran Khan. He played 86 Tests and 115 ODIs for New Zealand and was once the highest ever wicket-taker in Tests until Kapil Dev broke his record.

Hadlee played a major role in New Zealand winning for the first time against England. In Wellington during the 1977-78 season, he picked up 4-74 and 6-26 against England to give his team a moment to cherish. In his 50th Test match at Colombo, he picked up his 17th and 18th five-fors, helping New Zealand win a series in Sri Lanka.

However, his best one man effort was saved for the neighbours Australia. In the Trans-Tasman trophy in 1985/86, he picked up 33 wickets in the series. The second highest wicket-taker for his team in the series took 7 wickets. The difference of 26 wickets between them shows how he single handedly destroyed Australia.

#3 George Lohmann

George Lohmann

On the basis of statistics, George Lohmann will be right up there with the best bowlers ever seen in Test cricket. In 18 Tests, he picked up 112 wickets at an average of 10.75 and a strike rate of 34.1. That average is the lowest in Test cricket history for bowlers with more than 15 wickets.

A right arm medium fast bowler for England, he made his debut in 1886 and played his last Test in 1896. Rated by his contemporaries as the most difficult bowler, he was able to make the ball seam both ways.

His performance on the tour of South Africa in 1895/96 enables him to make this list. He took 35 wickets in 3 Tests and the next highest wicket-taker for his team managed to pick up only 5 wickets. This difference of 30 wickets between the two bowlers is the third highest in the list of maximum difference between the highest and second highest wicket taker for a team in a series.

#2 Jim Laker

Jim Laker’s feat of 19 wickets in a Test match is unlikely to be broken

Jim Laker will always be admired for his bowling against Australia in the Test match at Old Trafford in 1956, when he took 19 wickets for 90 – 9 for 37 in the first innings and 10 for 53 in the second. No other bowler has taken more than seventeen wickets in a first-class match, let alone Test matches.

An offspinner by trade, Laker played 46 Tests for England and took 193 wickets at an average of 21.24. He also scored 676 runs at an average of 14.08.

In the 1956 Ashes, he took 46 wickets in 5 matches and the next highest wicket taker in his team took 15 wickets creating a difference of 31 wickets. This is the second highest difference between highest and second highest wicket takers of a team in a Test series. Laker’s performance in the 1956 Ashes was surely symbolic of one man army.

#1 Sydney Barnes

Sydney Barnes

Sydney Barnes played for England from 1901 to 1914. He was a right arm fast medium bowler who was considered by many who watched him play to be the bowler of the century.

Herbert Strudwick, the old Surrey and England wicketkeeper described Barnes in the following words.

“He was the greatest bowler I ever kept wicket to, for he sent down something different each ball of the over. He could turn it either way in remarkable fashion and I shall never forget keeping to him for the first time in a Gentlemen v. Players match at The Oval. His opening delivery pitched outside the leg stump and flew over the top of the off stump. I said to a team-mate: "What sort of bowler have we here?" I soon found out. Sydney could do almost anything with the ball. On matting wickets in South Africa where I toured with him, he was practically unplayable.”

Sydney Barnes played 27 Tests and picked up 189 wickets at an average of 16.43. On England’s tour of South Africa in 1913 /14 he picked up 49 wickets – The next highest wicket taker in his team took 10 wickets. The difference of wickets taken by the two, which stood at 39, is the highest difference ever between the highest and second highest wicket taker of the same team.

On South Africa’s tour of England in 1912 he took 34 wickets. The next highest wicket taker in his team took 11 wickets. Similarly in a triangular tournament in 1912 he took 39 wickets & the next highest wicket taker in his team took 17 wickets.

The stats clearly shows how Sydney Barnes was a one man army for England.