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

Travis Basevi and George Binoy

15-Feb-2006

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.

Click here for more lists on other dismissals

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