Cricinfo - Blogs - It Figures - Bowlers doing it all on their own

I must thank David Barry for giving me the idea. In his article he has mentioned "Wasim Akram and Waqar Younis, who often aimed for the pads or stumps". I myself have expressed similar views earlier. Then I started thinking about doing an article on similar lines. Let us see to what extent the Ws (and others) succeeded at taking care of the batsman by themselves. It is possible that this article has been done elsewhere but mine is a different interpretation and hopefully will bring in a fresh insight.

Let me add that individual dismissal type tables are available in Cricinfo using Statsguru. I have used my data to create composite tables and also sequence by % of total rather than by absolute numbers. I extended the scope of the analysis to bowlers who got wickets by bowling batsmen, getting them out leg-before, take return catches and the rare instances of hitting the wicket. These dismissals do not involve another player.

As usual I have to have a cut-off. I have selected 150 wickets, knowing fully well that there would be protests, since a reasonable number of wickets are needed to get the comparisons going properly. This represents a career of 30-40 matches, the minimum needed for a meaningful comparison. The lowering from 200 also enables me to get a few interesting bowlers such as Shoaib Akhtar, Terry Alderman and Ramadhin.

However, rest assured. The others have not been forgotten. At the end of the article, I have two tables, one specifically for pre-WW2, with a lower cut-off of 100 wickets and another one post-WW2, those who have captured between 100 and 150 wickets. So everyone should be happy.

With this 150 wickets cut-off, there are 80 bowlers. With no further ado, let us move on to the tables. First let me emphasize that these tables do not rate the bowlers in any way since we are only looking at the type of dismissals. Coming on top does not mean that the bowler is a better bowler than one who is 35th.

First the composite table incorporating all the four forms of dismissals.

Table of wickets captured through bowler's own efforts

No Bowler           Type Cty Mat Wkts Bow LBW C&B Total %

 1.Ramadhin S        ROB Win  43 158   62  29  6   97 61.4 
 2.Lindwall R.R      RF  Aus  61 228   98  31  6  135 59.2 
 3.Waqar Younis      RFM Pak  87 373  102 110  6  218 58.4 
 4.Statham J.B       RFM Eng  70 252  102  42  2  146 57.9 
 5.Shoaib Akhtar     RF  Pak  46 178   64  35  4  103 57.9 
 6.Tate M.W          RFM Eng# 39 155   59  25  3   87 56.1 
 7.Wasim Akram       LFM Pak 104 414  102 119  5  226 54.6 
 8.Alderman T.M      RFM Aus  41 170   25  58  3   86 50.6 
 9.Imran Khan        RF  Pak  88 362   96  80  5  181 50.0 
10.Garner J          RF  Win  58 259   69  57  3  129 49.8 
...
...
...
76.Bishop I.R        RF  Win  43 161   26  17  3   46 28.6
77.Hughes M.G        RF  Aus  53 212   23  32  5   60 28.3
78.Bedi B.S          LSP Ind  67 266   49  16 10   75 28.2
79.Ntini M           RF  Saf  91 358   68  23  5   96 26.8
80.Kallis J.H        RFM Saf 123 240   32  25  3   60 25.0

Note: # indicates Career finished before 1940.

It is a surprise to see spinner at the top. The mystery bowler, Sonny Ramadhin has captured an amazing 60+% of his wickets through his own efforts. More on this later.

I expected Waqar Younis and Wasim Akram in the next 2 positions. However they are in 3rd and 7th positions respectively. Surprisingly the second and fourth positions are filled by two great players of the 50/60s, Lindwall and Statham. Christopher Martin-Jenkins talks about both bowlers being fast, accurate and able to swing the ball either way.

However to compensate, Shoaib Akhtar, the other great Pakistani fast bowler, completes the top 5. The Pakistani quartet dominates the top-10 since Imran Khan is also in that group.

The surprise package, please do not jump on me, is Brian Statham. He is, again, an under-rated top-class bowler. He and Lindwall are on top because of their accuracy while I feel, the four Pakistani bowlers are there because they were faster, but equally accurate. Waqar Younis' in-swinging yorkers and Wasim Akram's ability to get the ball in at will are well known. Shoaib Akhtar's searing pace must have breached many a batsman's defence. It is possible that reverse-swing also has played a part.

Ramadhin is the only spinner in the Top-10.

At the end we have two South African current pace bowlers and Bedi, the great Indian spinner. More about them in the next tables.

To view the complete table, please click here.

Now let us take a look at the table which combines the two most direct forms of bowler dismissals, viz., Bowled and LBW.

Table of wickets: Bowled & LBW

No Bowler           Type Cty Mat Wkts  Bow LBW Tot  %

 1.Ramadhin S        ROB Win  43 158    62  29  91 57.6
 2.Statham J.B       RFM Eng  70 252   102  42 144 57.1
 3.Waqar Younis      RFM Pak  87 373   102 110 212 56.8
 4.Lindwall R.R      RF  Aus  61 228    98  31 129 56.6
 5.Shoaib Akhtar     RF  Pak  46 178    64  35  99 55.6
 6.Tate M.W          RFM Eng# 39 155    59  25  84 54.2
 7.Wasim Akram       LFM Pak 104 414   102 119 221 53.4
 8.Alderman T.M      RFM Aus  41 170    25  58  83 48.8
 9.Imran Khan        RF  Pak  88 362    96  80 176 48.6
10.Garner J          RF  Win  58 259    69  57 126 48.6

Note: # indicates Career finished before 1940.

There is very little change to the sequence of the first table, except that Statham and Waqar Younis move ahead of Lindwall.

Now let us see two individual tables, one on Bowled and the other on LBW.

Table of wickets - "Bowled"

No Bowler           Type Cty Mat Wkts  Bow  %

 1.Lindwall R.R      RF  Aus  61 228    98 43.0
 2.Statham J.B       RFM Eng  70 252   102 40.5
 3.Ramadhin S        ROB Win  43 158    62 39.2
 4.Tate M.W          RFM Eng# 39 155    59 38.1
 5.Shoaib Akhtar     RF  Pak  46 178    64 36.0
 6.Barnes S.F        RFM Eng# 27 189    68 36.0
 7.Hall W.W          RF  Win  48 192    65 33.9
 8.Trueman F.S       RF  Eng  67 307   103 33.6
 9.Holding M.A       RF  Win  60 249    81 32.5
10.Bedser A.V        RFM Eng  51 236    70 29.7
...
...
...
74.Pollock S.M       RFM Saf 108 421    59 14.0
75.McGrath G.D       RFM Aus 124 563    76 13.5
76.Kallis J.H        RFM Saf 123 240    32 13.3
77.Vettori D.L       LSP Nzl  84 266    32 12.0
78.Harbhajan Singh   ROB Ind  71 299    35 11.7
79.Hughes M.G        RF  Aus  53 212    23 10.8
80.Vaas WPUJC        LFM Slk 107 348    37 10.6

Note: # indicates Career finished before 1940.

The Bowled list is led by bowlers of the 50s/60s/30s. Shoaib Akhtar is the leading current bowler. Lindwall and Statham have had over 40% of their wickets through the Bowled route. Does this indicate a lower degree of defensive batting skills during the 50s/60s? Readers might have their own comments. Ramadhin has bamboozled the batsmen to the extent of capturing nearly 40% of his victims in this manner. Very unlike a spinner.

In this classifification, Waqar Younis, Wasim Akram and Imran Khan drop out of the Top 10.

At the other end we have two great recent fast bowlers. Note the very low Bowled % of Pollock and McGrath. Also remember where Vaas is, right at the bottom. But wait for the next table.

Table of wickets - "LBW"

No Bowler           Type Cty Mat Wkts  LBW  %

 1.Alderman T.M      RFM Aus  41 170    58 34.1
 2.Waqar Younis      RFM Pak  87 373   110 29.5
 3.Wasim Akram       LFM Pak 104 414   119 28.7
 4.Vaas WPUJC        LFM Slk 107 348    98 28.2
 5.Hoggard M.J       RFM Eng  67 248    65 26.2
 6.Kapil Dev N       RFM Ind 131 434   110 25.3
 7.Kumble A          RLB Ind 131 616   155 25.2
 8.Gillespie J.N     RFM Aus  71 259    59 22.8
 9.Streak H.H        RFM Zim  65 216    48 22.2
10.Imran Khan        RF  Pak  88 362    80 22.1
...
...
...
76.Gibbs L.R         ROB Win  79 309    21  6.8
77.Davidson A.K      LFM Aus  44 186    12  6.5
78.Ntini M           RF  Saf  91 358    23  6.4
79.Barnes S.F        RFM Eng# 27 189    12  6.3
80.Bedi B.S          LSP Ind  67 266    16  6.0

Note: # indicates Career finished before 1940.

This table is led by Alderman who captured over a third of his dismissals through the LBW route. Who can forget his debut series during 1981 in England.

This table confirms the premise we started with. Waqar Younis and Wasim Akram found the batsmen's pads much more often than anyone else, barring one. To be precise, nearly 30% of their successful efforts. One with his toe-splitting inswinging yorkers and the other one with his deadly coming in delivery et al. To think that these two bowled in tandem for most of their careers! Have a quiet moment of sympathy for the non-Pakistani batsmen of the 90s. Towards the end Akhtar also got in.

Vaas is a revelation: he was last in the Bowled table, but here he is fourth. He is also similar to Wasim Akram, bringing the ball in viciously, albiet at a slightly lower pace. The forgotten Hoggard comes in next. The next one is a welcome addition of Kapil Dev, taking a quarter of his dismissals through Lbw. Then Kumble, with his accurate wicket-to-wicket line.

At the other end, we have Bedi propping the table. A very low proportion of 6%. Most of his victims were catches, close and outfield. It should not be surprising to see Ntini at the bottom. With his wide-of-the-crease deliveries, his chances of picking up Lbw decisions was quite low.

I have deliberately stayed away from further breaking these numbers into Home-Away, because I feel there will be uncharitable remarks on Home LBWs. These are all great bowlers and do not deserve any negative comments. Anyway, Imran led the crusade for neutral umpires and for quite some time now the umpiring mistakes are genuine errors or due to incompetence and cannot be attributed to any other ulterior motive.

To view the table of Post-WW2 bowlers (100-150 wkts), please click here.

To view the table of Pre-WW2 bowlers, please click here.

This opens up a few interesting areas of observation.

The top-10 has a lone spinner, Ramadhin, who incidentally leads the table. Ramadhin, with his unusual action and delivery, cleverly mixing off breaks and leg breaks, achieved over 60% of his dismissals in a direct manner. Possibly Mendis comes close to him, although these are early days.
The Top-10 has Ramadhin and nine other pacemen. Although spinners come in subsequently (6 out of the top 20). Do we conclude that hitting the stumps and pads (successfully) is a pace bowlers' domain?
Is there a role played by drop or increase in batsmen's defensive technical abilities.
Have the Lbw laws played a part. Some of this may be revealed when I complete my period-based analysis.
An interesting sidelight is that two of the most successful recent bowlers, McGrath and Pollock are way down in the list.
Zaheer Khan is steadily moving up the Lbw table. Early days, but Ishant Sharma could be there in the top quarter of this table, with his speed and reverse swinging skills.