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The List

Bowlers and their wicket-taking ways

Which bowler hits the stumps most often? Whose stumps rarely get hit? Has Kapil Dev ever been run out? The List looks at modes of dismissals for bowlers and batsmen

Some statistics, like Bradman's average and the number of centuries Tendulkar has made are known to pretty much every cricket buff. But The List will bring you facts and figures that aren't so obvious, adding fuel to those fiery debates about the most valuable middle-order bat, and the most useless tailender. If there's a particular List that you would like to see, e-mail us with your comments and suggestions.


Chaminda Vaas: He may not hit the stumps that often but he'll hit your pad. © AFP
Which bowler hits the stumps most often? Whose stumps rarely get hit? Has Kapil Dev ever been run out? And how many times has Joe Darling been out lbw? The List looks at modes of dismissals for bowlers and batsmen.
Younis Khan plundered India in the recent Test series, scoring 553 runs at 110.60 in five innings. That he was not bowled even once but was lbw thrice in the series fits the pattern of dismissals over his career. In 74 innings, Younis has been bowled just thrice - the least bowled percentage for a player with a minimum of 50 innings - but has been lbw 20 times, putting him sixth among the highest lbw percentages.
Renowned for his accurate line and length, Chaminda Vaas is Younis's bowling equivalent. Vaas has just 29 bowleds in 301 wickets, the lowest percentage (9.63%) amongst bowlers with more than 100 Test wickets, while he has hit the pads successfully 81 times. Irfan Pathan is a potent force with the new ball and the one that swings into the right hander is his stock wicket-taking ball. His 25 lbws out of 81 wickets gives him the second highest lbw percentage - below Terry Alderman and above Wasim Akram and Waqar Younis. These bowlers running in to Joe Darling would have been a good contest for Darling was never lbw in his 34-Test career. Fred Spofforth on the other hand had more than half of his wickets bowled (50 out of 94) but had just three lbw wickets.
When asked who is most likely to get a batsman out caught behind, several fearsome fast bowlers would spring to mind. But Mudassar Nazar , with his military medium pace, tops the list. Of his 66 wickets, 24 have been caught behind (36.36%) - a figure higher than Allan Donald (30.30), Dennis Lillee (27.32) and Glenn McGrath (27.12). George Giffen was a polar opposite: just one of his 103 wickets came from an edge to the wicketkeeper.
Nazar was also never run out in 116 innings, something Graeme Hick also achieved. But for running between the wickets Kapil Dev beats all else. He's never been run-out in 184 innings and has been involved in just two instances when his partner was run out.
Of the current spinners, Danish Kaneria has a better stumping frequency than the others. He has 15 stumpings out of 148 wickets while Kumble has 16 out of 494, Warne 33 out of 659 and Murali 31 out of 584.
For batsmen who've never been stumped, Nasser Hussain heads the list with 171 innings. Shivnarine Chanderpaul and Saleem Malik are other batsmen who've played over 150 innings without being stumped.
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  • Bowlers - Largest percentage of caught behind wickets in Tests (qualification: 50 career wickets)
    Player Span Mat Balls Ave Wkts Ct WK %
    Mudassar Nazar (Pak) 1976-1989 76 5967 38.36 66 24 36.36
    AD Mullally (Eng) 1996-2001 19 4525 31.24 58 20 34.48
    AM Blignaut (Zimb) 2001-2005 19 3173 37.05 53 18 33.96
    ALF de Mel (SL) 1982-1986 17 3518 36.94 59 20 33.89
    DR Tuffey (NZ) 2000-2004 22 4110 31.16 66 22 33.33

    Bowlers - Smallest percentage of caught behind wickets in Tests (qualification: 50 career wickets)
    Player Span Mat Balls Ave Wkts Ct WK %
    G Giffen (Aust) 1881-1896 31 6391 27.09 103 1 0.97
    JM Blanckenberg (SAf) 1913-1924 18 3888 30.28 60 1 1.66
    G Ulyett (Eng) 1877-1890 25 2627 20.39 50 1 2.00
    JJ Ferris (Aust/Eng) 1887-1892 9 2302 12.70 61 2 3.27
    GRJ Matthews (Aust) 1983-1993 33 6271 48.22 61 2 3.27

    Bowlers - Largest percentage of bowled wickets in Tests (qualification: 50 career wickets)
    Player Span Mat Balls Ave Wkts Bwd %
    T Richardson (Eng) 1893-1898 14 4498 25.22 88 54 61.36
    E Jones (Aust) 1894-1902 19 3754 29.01 64 36 56.25
    WE Bowes (Eng) 1932-1946 15 3655 22.33 68 37 54.41
    GE Palmer (Aust) 1880-1886 17 4517 21.51 78 42 53.84
    FR Spofforth (Aust) 1877-1887 18 4185 18.41 94 50 53.19

    Bowlers - Smallest percentage of bowled wickets in Tests (qualification: 50 career wickets)
    Player Span Mat Balls Ave Wkts Bwd %
    CR Miller (Aust) 1998-2001 18 4091 26.15 69 4 5.79
    JD Higgs (Aust) 1978-1981 22 4752 31.16 66 4 6.06
    GC Small (Eng) 1986-1991 17 3927 34.01 55 4 7.27
    AM Blignaut (Zimb) 2001-2005 19 3173 37.05 53 4 7.54
    GJ Whittall (Zimb) 1993-2002 46 4686 40.94 51 4 7.84

    Bowlers - Largest percentage of lbw wickets in Tests (qualification: 50 career wickets)
    Player Span Mat Balls Ave Wkts LBW %
    TM Alderman (Aust) 1981-1991 41 10181 27.15 170 58 34.11
    IK Pathan (India) 2003-2006 21 4316 29.55 81 25 30.86
    DR Pringle (Eng) 1982-1992 30 5287 35.97 70 21 30.00
    Waqar Younis (Pak) 1989-2003 87 16224 23.56 373 110 29.49
    Wasim Akram (Pak) 1985-2002 104 22627 23.62 414 119 28.74

    Bowlers - Smallest percentage of lbw wickets in Tests (qualification: 50 career wickets)
    Player Span Mat Balls Ave Wkts LBW %
    JV Saunders (Aust) 1902-1908 14 3565 22.73 79 0 0.00
    W Bates (Eng) 1881-1887 15 2364 16.42 50 0 0.00
    GA Lohmann (Eng) 1886-1896 18 3830 10.75 112 2 1.78
    KJ O'Keeffe (Aust) 1971-1977 24 5384 38.07 53 1 1.88
    CTB Turner (Aust) 1887-1895 17 5179 16.53 101 3 2.97

    Bowlers - Largest percentage of stumped wickets in Tests (qualification: 50 career wickets)
    Player Span Mat Balls Ave Wkts St %
    Nasim-ul-Ghani (Pak) 1958-1973 29 4406 37.67 52 10 19.23
    AA Mailey (Aust) 1920-1926 21 6119 33.91 99 18 18.18
    RO Schwarz (SAf) 1906-1912 20 2639 25.76 55 9 16.36
    SP Gupte (India) 1951-1961 36 11284 29.55 149 20 13.42
    CV Grimmett (Aust) 1925-1936 37 14513 24.21 216 28 12.96

  • Click here for more lists on other dismissals
  • If there's a particular List that you would like to see, e-mail us with your comments and suggestions.

    George Binoy is editorial assistant of Cricinfo