Waqar Younis completes 300 wickets in Test cricket

Pakistan's Waqar Younis completed his 300 wickets in Test cricket when he had Sri Lanka's Muttiah Muralitharan caught by Wasim Akram in the first innings of the Colombo Test. Waqar became the third Pakistani and 14th bowler in Test history to reach this landmark, The elite club of 300 wicket takers includes world record holder West Indian Courtney Walsh (454 wickets in 118 Tests), India's Kapil Dev (434 in 131), New Zealander Richard Hadlee (431 in 86), Pakistan's Wasim Akram (399 in 96), West Indian Curtly Ambrose (389 in 94), England's Ian Botham (383 in 102), West Indian Malcolm Marshall (376 in 81), Australia's Shane Warne (366 in 84), Pakistan's Imran Khan (362 in 88),Australia's Dennis Lillee (355 in 70),England's Bob Willis (325 in 90),West Indian Lance Gibbs (309 in 79), England's Fred Trueman (307 in 67) ...and now Pakistan's Waqar Younis.

Fred Trueman was the first bowler to reach this milestone when he had Australian Neil Hawke caught at slip by Colin Cowdrey at The Oval on August 15, 1964 in his 65th Test. Dennis Lillee holds the record of accomplishing this feat in least number of Tests- 56t. However Waqar Younis now holds the world record of being the quickest in terms of balls. He sent down 12601 balls to capture 300 wickets. Waqar obliterated West Indian Malcolm Marshall's record who needed 13755 balls to complete his 300 wickets (calculated upto the end of the innings). At the other end of the scale , India's Kapil Dev took most Tests to do so by achieving the target in his 83d Test.Lance Gibbs, the first spinner in this elite club reached the target after bowling 25830 balls most balls bowled by any bowler to complete his 300 wickets. At 28 years and one day Kapil Dev is the youngest to take 300 wickets. Waqar, at 28 years and 212 days is the third youngest after Kapil Dev and Australia's Shane Warne (28 years and 114 days).

Opponents Tests Balls Mdns Runs Wkts Best Ave. 5WI 10WM Ave.

Australia 9 1586 55 825 24 4-69 34.37 0 0 66.08 England 8 1746 53 988 38 5-52 26.00 3 0 45.94 India 4 642 19 390 8 4-80 48.75 0 0 80.25 New Zealand 9 2259 104 1008 62 7-76 16.26 5 2 36.43 South Africa 5 896 30 478 20 6-78 23.90 1 1 44.80 Sri Lanka 10 1618 37 956 47 6-34 20.34 4 1 34.42 West Indies 11 1859 40 1087 47 5-46 23.12 3 0 39.55 Zimbabwe 9 1995 73 1004 54 7-91 18.59 5 1 36.94 Home 29 5655 186 2947 148 7-76 19.91 11 3 38.20 Away 36 6946 225 3789 152 6-34 24.92 10 2 45.69 Total 65 12601 411 6736 300 7-76 22.45 21 5 42.00

Best Bowling in an innings : 7-76,vs New Zealand,Faisalabad,1990-91

Best Bowling in a match : 13-135,vs Zimbabwe,Karachi,1993-94

Chronology of each milestone :

Wicket  Victim                  Venue           Season          Test
1st     Sanjay Manjrekar (Ind)  Karachi         1989-90         1st
50th    Carlisle Best (WI)      Faisalabad      1990-91         10th
100th   Chris Harris (NZ)       Hamilton        1992-93         20th
150th   Ken Ruthrford (NZ)      Auckland        1993-94         27th
200th   Dion Nash (NZ)          Christchurch    1995-96         38th
250th   Fanie de Villiers(SA)   Port Elizabeth  1997-98         51st
300th   Muttiah Muralitharan (SL) Colombo SSC   1999-00         65th

Mode of dismissals:

Home Away Total

Bowled 41 45 86 LBW 47 45 92 Caught in the field 34 35 69 Caught by `keeper 25 22 47 Caught and Bowled 1 5 6 TOTAL 148 152 300

Fred Trueman England Aug 15,1964 65th 33-191 12-71 Lance Gibbs West Indies Dec 12,1976 75th 41-74 17-310 Dennis Lillee Australia Nov 27,1981 56th 32-132 10-302 Bob Willis England Aug 1,1983 81st 34-63 12-204 Ian Botham England Aug 9,1984 72nd 28-258 7-12 Richard Hadlee New Zealand Feb 21,1986 61st 34-233 13-19 Kapil Dev India Jan 7,1987 83rd 28-1 8-83 Imran Khan Pakistan Jul 4,1987 68th 34-221 16-31 Malcolm Marshall West Indies Dec 29,1988 61st 30-255 10-14 Courtney Walsh West Indies Aug 25,1995 80th 32-299 10-289 Wasim Akram Pakistan Aug 26,1996 70th 30-84 11-214 Curtly Ambrose West Indies Jun 13,1997 71st 33-265 9-72 Shane Warne Australia Jan 5,1998 63rd 28-114 6-3 Waqar Younis Pakistan Jun 14,2000 65th 28-212 10-213