Trivia #04: Bowlers dismissing most batsmen for zero (27Jul93)

Source: Wisden's Cricket Monthly In WCM's letters to the editor page, there's an interesting letter from Kersi Meher-Homji of NSW, Aust. He writes a letter titled "Duck-Makers":

'Kapil Dev, only a dozen wickets shy of overtaking Sir Richard Hadlee's Test aggregrate record of 431 scalps, is only a whisker away from an obscure Hadlee landmark. The Kiwi holds a little-known record of dismissing most batsmen (66) in tests for ducks. Kapil has so far shot down 65 test 'ducksters'. I have found that six bowlers have dismissed 50 or more batsmen for zero at Test level, Fred Trueman being the first to do so. The elite six are listed:

Ducks Tests Ducks/test R.J. Hadlee 66 86 0.77 Kapil Dev 65 124 0.52 Imran Khan 62 88 0.70 M.D. Marshall 57 81 0.70 R.G.D. Willis 57 90 0.63 F.S. Trueman 50 67 0.74

Ray Lindwall (Aus) and Ian Botham (Eng) narrowly missed out, having dismissed 49 batsmen each for noughts in 61 and 102 tests respectively. Lindwall's duck-per-Test ratio of 0.80 surpasses Hadlee's. No doubt Botham would love to have one final crack at the Aussies to join the 50 Zero Gang.'

Well, since the letter was published Botham has ofcourse retired and Kapil dismissed Mahanama for a duck in the first test, equalling Hadlee's 66 victims. (and Samaraweera too, T2 v SL, Bangalore, Jan 94. Tally = 67) Thanks to Sanjay Naik on r.s.c.