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Gavin Larsen achieves a dubious milestone
Atul Kahate
18 January 1999
New Zealand's Gavin Larsen has achieved a dubious milestone by bowling
most balls to take 100 wickets in Limited Overs International
cricket. Thus, he overtook the previous 'record' held by the West
Indian off spinner Roger Harper. Larsen took his 100th wicket in the
third match of the present New Zealand-India series at Wellington.
Larsen took approximately 5504 balls to take his 100 wickets, Harper
had bowled 5175 for his 100. Just for the record, the fewest number of
deliveries bowled by any bowler to complete 100 wickets is 2797 - by
Saqlain Mushtaq of Pakistan. His team mate Waqar Younis follows him
closely with 2858. [For an explanation, see Note(3) below.]
Also interesting it would be to know that at 36 years and 109 days,
Larsen is the second oldest to take 100 wickets, Vivian Richards
topping the list (37 years and 2 days).
Most balls bowled to take 100 wickets
No Player Team Mts Balls Milestone reached
1 GR Larsen NZ 104 5504 Ind Wellington 14 Jan 1999
2 RA Harper WI 105 5175 SL Port-of-Spain 13 Apr 1996
3 IVA Richards WI 162 4861 Ind Port-of-Spain 9 Mar 1989
4 PAJ DeFreitas Eng 87 4861 SA Manchester 27 Aug 1994
5 RJ Shastri Ind 100 4694 SL Sharjah 25 Mar 1988
6 CA Walsh WI 87 4611 Eng Georgetown 7 Mar 1990
7 Aqib Javed Pak 93 4584 SA Karachi 16 Oct 1994
8 CZ Harris NZ 98 4579 Zim Wellington 6 Feb 1998
9 Mushtaq Ahmed Pak 91 4563 UAE Gujranwala 24 Feb 1996
10 WKM Benjamin WI 85 4442 Eng Lord's 28 May 1995
11 ST Jayasuriya SL 129 4371 Ind Bombay (1) 17 May 1997
12 MD Marshall WI 81 4263 Aus Melbourne 20 Jan 1987
13 BKV Prasad Ind 85 4241 Aus Sharjah 24 Apr 1998
14 SR Waugh Aus 110 4237 WI Bridgetown 13 Mar 1991
15 CL Hooper WI 105 4237 Pak Sharjah 1 Nov 1993
Notes:
- Bombay(1) denotes Wankhede Stadium, Bombay/Mumbai.
- All statistics updated to the end of the third match between New
Zealand and India.
- Although precise statistics are not available to calculate the
number of balls bowled by a bowler at a particular point of time, it
does not make a big difference as the figures get approximated only in
terms of one match - the one in which the player achieves the
milestone. So, the following table gives the number of balls bowled by
the bowlers to the end of the match in which they took their 100th
wicket, rather than at the point at which they did so.
Contributed by: Atul Kahate (akahate@yahoo.com)
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