Raising the bar

Over the last few weeks the List has looked at players who won the most Man-of-the-Match awards in a row, pairs that took most wickets in a match, and bowlers who were the highest wicket-takers in a series most often. One player featured in all three columns and he appears in this week's as well, about bowlers who improved their best figures the most times - a follow up from the one on batsmen who bettered their bests. If you guessed the player was Muttiah Muralitharan, you were right.

Murali has bowled more balls than anyone else in Tests, has 28 more five-fors than Shane Warne, and his 21 ten-wicket hauls are 11 more than the bowler in second place. Murali has grown more skilful as his career's progressed and as a result he's beaten his best bowling figures in an innings 13 times.

After an ordinary debut, in which he took 1 for 32 and 2 for 109 against Australia, Murali took his first five-wicket haul - 5 for 104 against South Africa - in his seventh Test and immediately bettered that with 5 for 101 in the next game. He took five-fors for fewer runs against New Zealand and Zimbabwe, and then climbed higher with 6 for 98 against Pakistan and 7 for 94 also against Zimbabwe in 1998. Until the Oval Test in 1998, no performance had remained Murali's best for longer than 14 innings. His 9 for 65 in Sri Lanka's maiden Test victory in England remained his best until his 71st Test, when he took 9 for 51 against Zimbabwe.

Tich Freeman, the England legspinner, played only 12 Tests in his five-year career between 1924 and 1929, but improved on his personal best eight times. He took two seven-wicket hauls, the second of which - 7 for 71 against South Africa - came in his penultimate Test and remained his best. Freeman was one of those county legends who didn't make it at Test level. He remains the only bowler to have taken over 300 wickets in a season (304 in 1928), and took over 200 wickets for Kent in each season between 1928 and 1935. He also took ten wickets in an innings thrice, a feat no one has matched.

For players like Rodney Hogg, Alf Valentine or Narendra Hirwani, their debut Test was as good as it got in terms of individual performance. Hogg took 6 for 74 on debut against England at the Gabba in 1978. He picked up five-fors in each innings of the next two Tests without beating his debut effort.

Valentine and Hirwani are among five bowlers who took eight wickets in an innings on debut, which is the record for Tests. Valentine took 8 for 109against England; Hirwani took 8 for 61 in the first innings and 8 for 75 in the second of his debut Test. Both bowlers never took more than six wickets in an innings again.

Unlike the Test tables, the bowlers who've improved their personal best most times in ODIs aren't those with the largest wicket tallies or the longest careers. Javagal Srinath, the former India fast bowler, took 315 wickets in his 229-ODI career but he had already improved his best figures ten times in his first 129 games. That, however, was primarily because of a poor start during which he beat his best six times by taking six two-wicket hauls, each for fewer runs than the one before. The 5 for 23 he took against Bangladesh in 1998 remained his best until he retired in 2003.

Sohail Tanvir, the Pakistan fast bowler, has bettered his figures once every three innings on average in his 24-match career. He had a forgettable initiation into one-day cricket, taking 1 for 52, 1 for 50, 0 for 36 and 1 for 38 in his debut series against South Africa in 2007. He got better in India where he improved his best three times in four matches, ending with 4 for 53 in Jaipur. He's broken that twice since and the 5 for 48 against Sri Lanka in the 2008 Asia Cup is currently his best

West Indies fast bowler Fidel Edwards had outstanding starts to both his Test and ODI careers. He came on second change in his debut Test, against Sri Lanka in 2003, and took 5 for 36. The closest he's come to beating that is when he took 5 for 38 against Pakistan in Bridgetown in 2005. After having an impact on the Test circuit, Edwards made his ODI debut in Zimbabwe in November 2003. He created history by taking 6 for 22, the best figures for a debutant.