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Stats Analysis

Marshall's lbw bunny, and a Darling who never got that way

All you need to know about the lbw in Test cricket after the 10,000th such dismissal happened in the Boxing Day Test in Port Elizabeth

S Rajesh
S Rajesh
28-Dec-2016
Lbw percentages over the decades in Tests, December 27, 2016

The percentage of lbw dismissals has been on the rise in the last four decades  •  ESPNcricinfo Ltd

All stats updated till Hashim Amla's lbw dismissal to Nuwan Pradeep in the Port Elizabeth Test, which was the 10,000th lbw dismissal in Test cricket.
14.51 Percentage contribution of lbws to all dismissals in Test cricket, which means roughly one in seven dismissals is an lbw. Bowled contributes 21%, and caught almost 59%.
17.05 Percentage of lbw dismissals since the start of 2000, which roughly translates to one in six dismissals. In the 1980s and '90s, the percentage was 16.13, which too was considerably higher than the earlier eras - 12.12% from the 1920s to the 1970s, and 6.38 in the period before that.
11.43 Percentage of lbw dismissals in Australia, the lowest among all countries; the next lowest is 12.81, in South Africa, which is indicative of the bouncy pitches in both countries. The highest lbw percentage is in Bangladesh (19.22), followed by Pakistan (18.13) and Sri Lanka (18.05).
63 Instances of Sachin Tendulkar falling lbw, the most among all batsmen. The only others with 50 or more such dismissals are Shivnarine Chanderpaul (55) and Graham Gooch (50).
Batsmen dismissed LBW most often in Tests
Batsman LBWs Dismissals LBW %
 Sachin Tendulkar  63  296  21.28
 Shivnarine Chanderpaul  55  231  23.81
 Graham Gooch  50  209  23.92
 Alastair Cook  47  238  19.75
 Ricky Ponting  47  258  18.22
 Graeme Smith  44  192  22.92
 Younis Khan  43  186  23.12
 Jacques Kallis  40  240  16.67
 Alec Stewart  40  214  18.69
 Brian Lara  37  226  16.37
35.85 Percent of lbw dismissals for JP Duminy in his career: he has been dismissed in this manner 19 times out of 53 dismissals. Among batsmen with 50 or more dismissals, his lbw percentage is the highest.
Highest % of LBW dismissals for batsmen (Min 50 dismissals)
Batsman LBWs Dismissals LBW %
 JP Duminy  19  53  35.85
 Dion Ebrahim  17  54  31.48
 Mathew Sinclair  16  51  31.37
 Daren Ganga  25  84  29.76
 Craig McMillan  24  81  29.63
 Basil Butcher  21  72  29.17
0 Times Joe Darling, an Australian batsman who played between 1894 and 1905, was lbw in 34 Tests. Among batsmen dismissed 50 or more times, he is the only one without a single lbw dismissal. Australia's Clem Hill was out lbw only once in 89 innings. Among current players, Tamim Iqbal's percentage of 3.61 - three lbws in 83 dismissals - is the lowest (with a 50 dismissals cut-off). The next highest number of dismissals without an lbw - Darling was dismissed 58 times in Tests - is Shahid Afridi's 47.
34.11 Percentage of Terry Alderman's wickets which came via lbws - 58 out of 170. His percentage is the highest among all bowlers with at least 50 lbw victims. The next three on this list are all from Pakistan - Saeed Ajmal, Waqar Younis and Wasim Akram.
156 Lbw dismissals for Anil Kumble, the highest in history; Muttiah Muralitharan is second with 150, followed by Shane Warne's 138. Among fast bowlers, Akram's 119 is the best.
Bowlers with most LBW dismissals in Tests
Player Wickets LBW LBW %
 Anil Kumble  619  156  25.20
 Muttiah Muralitharan  800  150  18.75
 Shane Warne  708  138  19.49
 Wasim Akram  414  119  28.74
 Glenn McGrath  563  113  20.07
 Kapil Dev  434  111  25.57
 Waqar Younis  373  110  29.49
 Chaminda Vaas  355  100  28.16
19.94 Percentage of lbw dismissals for Sri Lanka, the highest among all teams. Bangladesh are next with 19.23, followed by Pakistan with 18.35. Among batting teams, the highest percentage belongs to Zimbabwe (20.50), and the lowest to Australia (12.48%).
269 Test dismissals in 2016, the second-highest in any calendar year. The highest is 297, in 2002. In terms of percentages, 2016 is fourth with 18.69%, after 1990 (21.12%), 2012 (19.53), and 2003 (19.30). (Minimum qualification: three Tests in a calendar year).
Years with highest % of lbw dismissals (Min 3 Tests)
Year LBW Dismissals LBW %
 1990  162  767  21.12
 2012  255  1306  19.53
 2003  260  1347  19.30
 2016  269  1444  18.63
 1980  136  743  18.30
 1989  104  574  18.12
 1986  151  835  18.08
 1993  185  1027  18.01
43 The record for the most lbw dismissals in a series. This has happened three times, and England were involved in all of them: the 1981 Ashes (six Tests), the West Indies series in 2000 (five Tests), and the Pakistan series in 2011-12 (three Tests).
7 Instances when Malcolm Marshall trapped Allan Lamb lbw, the highest for a bowler against a batsman. There are four instances of a bowler toppling a batsman lbw six times: Akram v K Srikkanth, David Gower v Kapil Dev, Graham Gooch v Michael Holding, and Alec Bedser v Arthur Morris.
20 Lbws in the West Indies v Pakistan Test in Providence in 2011, the most in a match. The average lbws per Test in all matches is 4.5, which means this game had more than four times the usual lbw dismissals.
4 Instances of 40 wickets falling in a Test without a single lbw. Three of those were Australia-England Tests in 1882, 1885, and 1895, while the last one was in 1967, in an England-India Test at Edgbaston.
25.31 Percentage of lbw dismissals at Dubai Interntional Cricket Stadium, the highest among all venues which have hosted ten or more Tests. In simple numbers, that is 81 out of 320 dismissals. Sydney has the lowest lbw percentage (9.21) with 315 such dismissals out of 3420.
Venues with highest % lbw dismissals (Min 10 Tests)
Venue LBW Dismissals LBW %
 Dubai International Cricket Stadium  81  320  25.31
 Zahur Ahmed Chowdhury Stadium, Chittagong  99  451  21.95
 Iqbal Stadium, Faisalabad  148  722  20.50
 P Sara Oval, Colombo  128  639  20.03
 M Chinnaswamy Stadium, Bangalore  117  605  19.34
Venues with lowest % lbw dismissals (Min 10 Tests)
Venue LBW Dismissals LBW %
 Sydney Cricket Ground  315  3420  9.21
 W.A.C.A. Ground, Perth  160  1406  11.38
 Melbourne Cricket Ground  429  3642  11.78
 Brisbane Cricket Ground, Woolloongabba, Brisbane  222  1842  12.05
 Old Trafford, Manchester  267  2211  12.08
8 Times Javed Miandad was out lbw in home Tests, out of 33 lbw dismissals in his career. At home, his lbw percentage was only 11 (eight out of 73 dismissals), but in away Tests, it went up to 26% (25 out of 95). Bill Lawry, the Australian opener, was never out lbw in 30 home Tests; all of his seven lbws happened overseas.
266 The highest score at which a batsman has been dismissed lbw - Dave Houghton, against Sri Lanka in Bulawayo in 1994.
11 Instances of Courtney Walsh being out lbw for a duck, the most by a batsman. Rangana Herath is next with nine such dismissals.
79 Test wickets for Jack Saunders, a left-arm orthodox bowler who played between 1902 and 1908. None of those was an lbw, which makes it the biggest haul in a completed career without an lbw. The next best is 50 by Billy Bates, an England offspinner who played in the 1880s.
With inputs from Shiva Jayaraman.

S Rajesh is stats editor of ESPNcricinfo. @rajeshstats