Man-of-the-Match monopoly

India's hot start to the 2008 Asia Cup was in part due to Suresh Raina's form. He scored 101, 84 and 116 in the first three ODIs and was the Man of the Match in each of them. Monopolising the award in consecutive games is no mean feat, so the List decided to look at players who have done precisely that, and those who went years without an award.

Raina is the tenth player to take a hat-trick of Man-of-the-Match awards. Of the other nine, only three are specialist batsmen and none are specialist bowlers. Mohinder Amarnath won the first two of his three awards in the semi-final and final of the 1983 World Cup and completed the hat-trick in a home ODI against Pakistan in September that year.

Lance Klusener was Man of the Match in four of South Africa's nine matches during the 1999 World Cup, and three of them - against England, Sri Lanka, and Kenya - were in a row. He missed out against Zimbabwe, although he scored 52 and took a wicket, but returned to monopolise the award against Pakistan. Graham Gooch is the only other player to win three in a row during a World Cup. He did it in 1987, against West Indies, Sri Lanka and India .

Aravinda de Silva has two Man-of-the-Match hat-tricks. The first came in Colombo in 1996 against Australia and Zimbabwe. His second was in Sharjah in 1997, where he scored 60 against Zimbabwe, and 97 and 134 against Pakistan. Sourav Ganguly is the only player to have won four in a row; all of them were against Pakistan in Toronto in 1997.

Consecutive Man-of-the-Match awards by a player in ODIs

Player	Mat		Start Match	Opposition	Scorecard		End Match	Opposition	Scorecard
SC Ganguly (India)	4		Sep 14, 1997	v Pakistan	ODI 1228		Sep 21, 1997	v Pakistan	ODI 1232
M Amarnath (India)	3		Jun 22, 1983	v England	ODI 221		Sep 10, 1983	v Pakistan	ODI 224
GA Gooch (Eng)	3		Oct 26, 1987	v West Indies	ODI 468		Nov 5, 1987	v India	ODI 476
PA de Silva (SL)	3		Aug 30, 1996	v Australia	ODI 1108		Sep 7, 1996	v Australia	ODI 1114
G Kirsten (SA)	3		Oct 6, 1996	v Pakistan	ODI 1126		Oct 19, 1996	v Australia	ODI 1128
PA de Silva (SL)	3		Apr 3, 1997	v Zimbabwe	ODI 1189		Apr 7, 1997	v Pakistan	ODI 1193
L Klusener (SA)	3		May 19, 1999	v Sri Lanka	ODI 1451		May 26, 1999	v Kenya	ODI 1462
A Flintoff (Eng)	3		Nov 7, 2003	v Bangladesh	ODI 2057		Nov 12, 2003	v Bangladesh	ODI 2060
Imran Farhat (Pak)	3		Dec 3, 2003	v New Zealand	ODI 2072		Dec 7, 2003	v New Zealand	ODI 2074
Shoaib Malik (Pak)	3		Jul 25, 2004	v India	ODI 2152		Aug 21, 2004	v India	ODI 2157
Mashrafe Mortaza (Ban)	3		Aug 12, 2006	v Kenya	ODI 2402		Aug 15, 2006	v Kenya	ODI 2404
SK Raina (India)	3		Jun 25, 2008	v Hong Kong	ODI 2716		Jun 28, 2008	v Bangladesh	ODI 2721

Chaminda Vaas, the fourth-highest wicket-taker in ODIs, played the most matches before his maiden Man-of-the-Match award. Vaas made his debut in 1994 but it wasn't until his 164th ODI in 2001 that he won his first award by taking 3 for 20 against New Zealand in Colombo.

The longest gap between awards belongs to Javagal Srinath, who was the Man of the Match five times in his 229-ODI career. His fourth award came in January 1998, when he took 5 for 23 against Bangladesh in Dhaka. Ninety-three matches, spanning five years, went by before Srinath was Man of the Match again, this time in the 2003 World Cup. Mahela Jayawardene's 83 ODIs between December 2001 and August 2005 is the longest streak without an award for a batsman.

Most ODIs between awards

Player	Mat		Match 1	Opposition	Scorecard		Match 2	Opposition	Scorecard
J Srinath	93		Jan 10, 1998	v Bangladesh	ODI 1271		Mar 10, 2003	v Sri Lanka	ODI 1985
DPMD Jayawardene	83		Dec 15, 2001	v West Indies	ODI 1780		Aug 3, 2005	v India	ODI 2265
Harbhajan Singh	83		Oct 10, 2001	v South Africa	ODI 1757		Mar 28, 2006	v England	ODI 2357
CA Walsh	80		Dec 3, 1986	v Sri Lanka	ODI 405		Feb 25, 1993	v Pakistan	ODI 808
JN Rhodes	80		Apr 2, 1997	v Australia	ODI 1188		Dec 15, 2000	v Sri Lanka	ODI 1661
DK Morrison	78		Mar 14, 1989	v Pakistan	ODI 561		Nov 11, 1996	v Sri Lanka	ODI 1142
RB Richardson	77		Oct 21, 1991	v Pakistan	ODI 682		Mar 4, 1996	v Australia	ODI 1072
KD Mills	76		Apr 17, 2001	v Sri Lanka	ODI 1710		Jun 21, 2008	v England	ODI 2710
Ramiz Raja	75		Mar 6, 1985	v West Indies	ODI 317		Mar 11, 1989	v New Zealand	ODI 559
MV Boucher	75		Jan 27, 2002	v New Zealand	ODI 1797		Feb 25, 2005	v Zimbabwe	ODI 2229
DR Martyn	70		Nov 1, 2003	v India	ODI 2054		Oct 21, 2006	v England	ODI 2434
IA Healy	69		Jan 10, 1991	v England	ODI 662		Mar 11, 1995	v West Indies	ODI 986
EJ Chatfield	68		Nov 23, 1980	v Australia	ODI 94		Apr 10, 1986	v India	ODI 381
PJL Dujon	68		Jan 10, 1982	v Australia	ODI 133		Nov 14, 1986	v Pakistan	ODI 398
SP Fleming	68		Jan 6, 2000	v West Indies	ODI 1534		Jan 14, 2003	v India	ODI 1935

Jayawardene also features in the table of players with the longest gap between Man-of-the-Match awards in Tests. He won his first in his fourth Test, in which he scored 167 against New Zealand in 1999. The second came two Tests later, against India in Colombo. The third, however, took a while, coming only in 2004, after 51 Tests, for scoring 237 against South Africa in Galle.

Jason Gillespie was Man of the Match only twice in his 71-Test career. And those awards came nearly nine years apart. The first was in his eighth Test, at Headingley in 1997, when Gillespie ripped through England with 7 for 37. That was his only award for his bowling, for the next time Gillespie won, it was for scoring 201 not out against Bangladesh in Chittagong in 2006.

Only one player has bagged four consecutive Man-of-the-Match awards in Tests. Muttiah Muralitharan did it in Sri Lanka in 2001 when he took 42 wickets in four matches: one each against India and Bangladesh and two against West Indies.

Ian Botham won three in a row during his Ashes in 1981. Wasim Akram's last three awards were consecutive and took his tally to 17, the highest at the time. He's been overtaken since by Jacques Kallis, the most recent player to win three in a row. Kallis' 20 Man-of-the-Match awards are followed by Murali's 18.

Note: All numbers exclude matches in which no award was given, such as rain-affected matches, early Tests, etc.