Shane Warne - An artist with magic in his wrists
Shane Warne scalped 708 Test wickets in his career
|Former Australian cricketing great Shane Warne passed away on Friday but he left a legacy leaving behind some brilliant stats and records in his cricketing career. The man with magic in his wrists used to spin the web around the best of the batsmen and bamboozled them with his sheer brilliance.
Shocked, stunned, speechless, gutted, sad - many adjectives can be used to write about Shane Warne’s final goodbye to the world but Warne has such an enormous impact on the game that none can fill the void left in the sport with his demise.The generation that saw him bowling on their television sets or stadiums witnessed a masterclass of spin bowling in spite of batsman-friendly playing conditions and surfaces.
Warne ended his career with 708 Test wickets from 145 matches and 293 wickets from 194 ODIs. His journey to become one of the greats started when he bowled a peach of a delivery to Michael Gatting in 1995 which is often termed as ‘ball of the century’. Warne also showcased his leadership skills in IPL guiding Rajasthan Royals to the title win in the inaugural season under his leadership. Here are some of the interesting stats from his career.
1 - Shane Warne was the first cricketer to take 700 wickets in Test Cricket and he scalped his 700th wicket on Boxing Day in 2006 against England in his 144th Test. Along with him Muttiah Muralitharan is the only bowler to achieve this rare feat who touched the milestone in July 2007 against Bangladesh.
1 - Shane Warne was the first captain in IPL to lift the trophy winning the inaugural edition. The team was having some fresh faces in their ranks like Ravindra Jadeja, Yusuf Pathan and Swapnil Asnodkar. Warne led the team well and they beat CSK by three wickets in the final in 2008.
2 - Warne is the second highest wicket-taker in Tests and across all formats. He has 708 Test wickets and has taken 1001 wickets across all the formats. Muralitharan is at the top with 800 Test wickets and 1347 scalps across all formats
10 - Warne has the second-highest number of ten wicket hauls in Test matches. He has 10 ten-wicket hauls while Muralitharan tops the list with 22 such instances.
17 - Shane Warne stands third in the list of players with highest number of Man of the Match awards with 17 awards to his name. Jacques Kallis tops the list with 23 awards while Muralitharan has 19 to his name. Wasim Akram and Warne are jointly in the same position.
38 - The Australian leg-spinner has picked 38 five-wicket hauls and ranks third in the list of bowlers taking most five-fors across all the formats. Muralitharan tops the list with 77 while Richard Hadlee has 41 five-wicket hauls to his name.
96 - Warne has the most number of wickets in a calendar year as he scalped 96 wickets in 2005. His performance in Ashes that year was brilliant with 40 wickets across five Tests. Muralitharan is second in the list with 90 wickets in 2006.
125 - The Australian cricketing Maestro has the most catches taken by a player with more than 300 Test wickets. Warne has 125 catches from 145 Tests with 708 wickets. Ian Botham is the only other cricketer to have taken 300 wickets and 100 or more catches in Tests.
161 - Shane Warne completed 250 wickets in 161 Test matches and he is fifth fastest bowler to achieve the feat. Saqlain Mushtaq tops the list taking just 138 matches to reach the milestone.
195 - Warne has the highest number of wickets against any opposition in Test cricket. He has scalped 195 wickets from 36 matches at an average of 23.25 against England also making him the highest wicket-taker in the Ashes.
291 - Shane Warne is the third highest wicket-taker in ODIs for Australia with 291 wickets from 193 ODIs. Glenn McGrath and Bret Lee have 280 ODI wickets each to their name while playing for Australia.
3154 - Warne has most Test runs without scoring a hundred which is evidence that he was handy in batting too. Warne scored 3154 Test runs with a highest score of 99 against New Zealand in 2001.
51,347 - Shane Warne is third bowler to bowl most deliveries in his international career across all formats. Muralitharan has bowled 63,132 balls and Anil Kumble has bowled 55,346 deliveries.
Courtesy Stats - ESPNcricinfo, Sportsadda, newsbytesapp.com
