Strike force

In last week's List, we dug up bowlers who had taken a wicket in every Test they played. Since then, we received a few emails asking for the one-day international equivalent and so we've given it a run. You'll notice that while Fred Trueman and Joel Garner managed a wicket in each of their 67 and 58 Tests, and Shane Bond struck in all his 30 Test innings, the corresponding numbers for ODIs are significantly smaller.

Former England and Surrey fast bowler Martin Bicknell lingers in memory largely because of his surprise inclusion in the national squad for two Tests against South Africa in 2003, a decade after he made his debut. Bicknell, however, had played one-day internationals two years before getting onto the Test circuit, and he took wickets in each of his seven matches. He was included in the squad for the Ashes tour in 1990-91 at the age of 21 and, although he didn't play a Test, he featured in ODIs in Australia and New Zealand. He finished with 13 wickets at an average of 26.70 and strike-rate of 31.70 but never made the ODI team again.

Pakistan fast bowler Jalal-ud-Din, who took the first ODI hat-trick, also took wickets in every match he bowled in. He played eight matches but Pakistan bowled in only seven of them and Jalal-ud-Din ended his career with 14 wickets at an average of 15.07.

If you run a Statsguru query, without a minimum number of balls bowled or wickets taken, for bowlers with the best averages, the first few names are those of players who've bowled once, maybe twice - Mohammad Yousuf, Mohsin Khan and Vinod Kambli for example. As you scroll down, you'll reach Gary Gilmour, who played only five one-dayers but took 16 wickets at an average of 10.31 and strike-rate of 20. He had three wickets in two matches before he came to the 1975 World Cup and didn't make the starting XI during the initial stages. He played the semi-final against England and knocked them out for 93 with figures of 6 for 14 in 12 overs - a record that stood until 1983. Gilmour took 5 for 48 in the final as well, against West Indies, but Australia still lost. He played only one more ODI - a one-off against West Indies in Adelaide in December.

The bowlers with the highest proportion of matches with wickets aren't from the Who's Who list of one-day cricket either. Australian fast bowlers Tony Dodemaide and Michael Kasprowicz are the only two who've played more than 20 ODIs and taken wickets in over 85% of their matches.

Dodemaide was the first bowler to take a five-for on debut - against Sri Lanka in 1988 - but that was as good as it got. He rarely went wicketless, though, striking in 21 out of 24 matches. The first player with over 100 ODIs in the table is Brett Lee, who has taken a wicket in 80% of his 173 matches.

The most consecutive ODIs in which a bowler has taken a wicket is 25. The Test equivalent is 69. Ian Bishop struck in 25 consecutive matches between January 1993 and 1996 and took 40 wickets at 26.50 which, coincidentally, is the same as his career average. He faded quickly after that streak, going wicketless in ten out of his last 18 matches.

If we introduce a cut-off that a bowler must have bowled a minimum of 30 balls for the innings to qualify, then Glenn McGrath's streak of wickets in 28 ODIs between December 1997 and August 1999 beats Bishop. The only bowler in the table, who is currently on a streak, is Andrew Flintoff. He's taken wickets in 16 matches since March 2007 - 37 wickets at an average of 15.54 and strike-rate of 22.

Most consecutive matches for taking a wicket - ODIs

Player	Mat		Start Match	Opposition	Scorecard		End Match	Opposition	Scorecard
IR Bishop	25		Jan 18, 1993	v Australia	ODI 793		Jan 14, 1996	v Sri Lanka	ODI 1037
C Pringle	23		Mar 27, 1993	v Australia	ODI 825		Oct 26, 1994	v West Indies	ODI 938
A Kumble	23		Aug 20, 1997	v Sri Lanka	ODI 1224		Sep 27, 1998	v Zimbabwe	ODI 1355
J Srinath	22		Dec 25, 1997	v Sri Lanka	ODI 1268		Jan 9, 1999	v New Zealand	ODI 1378
BP Patterson	21		Mar 21, 1987	v New Zealand	ODI 437		Oct 18, 1988	v Pakistan	ODI 524
B Lee	21		Aug 28, 2004	v Pakistan	ODI 2162		Jun 25, 2005	v Bangladesh	ODI 2254
M Muralitharan	20		Aug 30, 1996	v Australia	ODI 1108		May 20, 1997	v New Zealand	ODI 1208
BKV Prasad	19		Sep 1, 1996	v Zimbabwe	ODI 1110		Feb 7, 1997	v Zimbabwe	ODI 1174
M Dillon	19		Jun 23, 2001	v Zimbabwe	ODI 1727		Nov 9, 2002	v India	ODI 1894
CRD Fernando	18		Jul 31, 2001	v New Zealand	ODI 1741		Sep 16, 2002	v Netherlands	ODI 1878
IT Botham	17		Jun 4, 1981	v Australia	ODI 119		Jan 20, 1983	v New Zealand	ODI 171
D Gough	17		Feb 10, 1999	v Australia	ODI 1405		Feb 13, 2000	v South Africa	ODI 1560
NW Bracken	17		Mar 5, 2006	v South Africa	ODI 2347		Jan 21, 2007	v New Zealand	ODI 2479
KD Mills	17		Nov 6, 2005	v South Africa	ODI 2293		Dec 14, 2007	v Australia	ODI 2655
Maninder Singh	16		Mar 22, 1987	v Pakistan	ODI 438		Jan 2, 1988	v West Indies	ODI 483
GD McGrath	16		Dec 4, 1997	v South Africa	ODI 1254		Feb 13, 1999	v England	ODI 1406
Shoaib Akhtar	16		Nov 20, 1998	v Zimbabwe	ODI 1375		May 28, 1999	v New Zealand	ODI 1466
GD McGrath	16		Jan 28, 2001	v Zimbabwe	ODI 1678		Jan 11, 2002	v New Zealand	ODI 1783
A Flintoff	16		Mar 24, 2007	v Kenya	ODI 2553		Aug 31, 2008	v South Africa	ODI 2759
AME Roberts	15		Nov 28, 1979	v England	ODI 76		Dec 5, 1981	v Pakistan	ODI 126