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Most matches played together by a pair in ODI Cricket

A look at the cricketers who have played with and against most often.

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Mahela Jayawardene and Kumar Sangakkara top the table for most ODIs played together © Getty Images (File Photo)
Kumar Sangakkara (left) and Mahela Jayawardene top the table for most ODIs played together © Getty Images

Despite its late initiation, ODIs have outnumbered Tests over the years, making it the format with most international matches. Bharath Seervi looks at the cricketers who have played with and against most often.

The teams in One Day International (ODI) format have had services of a pair or two in their most productive years. There have been great player pairs over the years. The Sri Lankan team, especially, have had a quite a good number of pairs both in batting and bowling in their short history.

Arjuna Ranatunga and Aravinda de Silva were followed by Sanath Jayasuriya and Muttiah Muralitharan and then by Mahela Jayawardene and Kumar Sangakkara. The Indian team has had its share of pairs too, in the form of Rahul Dravid, Sachin Tendulkar, Sourav Ganguly, and Anil Kumble. Jacques Kallis and Shaun Pollock from South Africa and Ricky Ponting and Adam Gilchrist from Australia are some of the other pairs.

The pair which played the most number of ODIs together for a team is that of Jayawardene and Sangakkara. They both played in a record 341 ODIs together for Sri Lanka and still continue to play. Two other pairs played over 300 matches together for the same team: 307 (Jayasuriya and Muralitharan) and 304 (Jayasuriya and Chaminda Vaas). The table below provides the complete list.

Many of the pairs have been from the Asian teams. The pair with highest number of matches together for Australia is Ponting and Gilchrist (245 ODIs). For India it has been the pair of Dravid and Ganguly with 256 appearances together.

Stephen Fleming and Nathan Astle have played in 203 ODIs (the best for New Zealand); Inzamam-ul-Haq and Wasim Akram, in 216 ODIs (the best for Pakistan); Kallis and Pollock, 259 (the best for South Africa). On the other hand — only one pair (Desmond Haynes and Richie Richardson, 176 matches together) have appeared in more than 175 ODIs alongside each other. The Flower brothers — Andy and Grant — played together in 194 ODIs for Zimbabwe.

Pairs playing 175 or more ODIs together for the same team:

 

Matches Player 1 Player 2 Team
341 Mahela Jayawardene Kumar Sangakkara Sri Lanka
307 Sanath Jayasuriya Muttiah Muralitharan Sri Lanka
304 Sanath Jayasuriya Chaminda Vaas Sri Lanka
273 Sanath Jayasuriya Mahela Jayawardene Sri Lanka
259 Jacques Kallis Shaun Pollock South Africa
256 Rahul Dravid Sourav Ganguly India
256 Jacques Kallis Mark Boucher South Africa
254 Mahela Jayawardene Tillakaratne Dilshan Sri Lanka
252 Muttiah Muralitharan Chaminda Vaas Sri Lanka
250 Kumar Sangakkara Tillakaratne Dilshan Sri Lanka
245 Sachin Tendulkar Rahul Dravid India
245 Sachin Tendulkar Anil Kumble India
245 Ricky Ponting Adam Gilchrist Australia
243 Sanath Jayasuriya Marvan Atapattu Sri Lanka
243 Mahela Jayawardene Muttiah Muralitharan Sri Lanka
243 Shaun Pollock Mark Boucher South Africa
241 Aravinda de Silva Arjuna Ranatunga Sri Lanka
238 Sachin Tendulkar Sourav Ganguly India
227 Mark Boucher Herschelle Gibbs South Africa
225 Sanath Jayasuriya Kumar Sangakkara Sri Lanka
224 Mahela Jayawardene Chaminda Vaas Sri Lanka
223 Sachin Tendulkar Mohammad Azharuddin India
219 Sanath Jayasuriya Aravinda de Silva Sri Lanka
218 Chaminda Vaas Marvan Atapattu Sri Lanka
216 Inzamam-ul-Haq Wasim Akram Pakistan
214 Steve Waugh Mark Waugh Australia
213 Muttiah Muralitharan Marvan Atapattu Sri Lanka
213 Mohammad Yousuf Abdul Razzaq Pakistan
209 Mahela Jayawardene Marvan Atapattu Sri Lanka
209 Jacques Kallis Herschelle Gibbs South Africa
208 Shaun Pollock Herschelle Gibbs South Africa
205 Kumar Sangakkara Muttiah Muralitharan Sri Lanka
204 Sachin Tendulkar Javagal Srinath India
203 Stephen Fleming Nathan Astle New Zealand
202 Aravinda de Silva Roshan Mahanama Sri Lanka
202 Arjuna Ranatunga Roshan Mahanama Sri Lanka
201 Wasim Akram Saleem Malik Pakistan

 

 

For Zimbabwe: Andy and Grant Flower — 194 ODIs

For West Indies: Haynes and Richardson — 176 ODIs

For England: Paul Collingwood and James Anderson — 125 ODIs

For Bangladesh: Mushfiqur Rahim and Tamim Iqbal — 114 ODIs

Let us list the players who played against each other most number of times in the ODIs. Even here the Asian players top the list. Tendulkar and Jayasuriya who top the list of players with most ODI appearances (463 and 445 respectively) have played against each other in a record 71 ODIs. Allan Border and Haynes come next with 60.

Below is the table listing the players who played against each other in 45 or more ODIs. There is a long list of Asian players especially from Sri Lanka and India. Jayawardene, Sangakkara, and Afridi are the others having their names often in the list.

Players playing against each other in 50 or more ODIs:

 

Matches Player 1 Team 1 Player 2 Team 2
71 Sachin Tendulkar India Sanath Jayasuriya Sri Lanka
60 Allan Border Australia Desmond Haynes West Indies
58 Mahela Jayawardene Sri Lanka Shahid Afridi Pakistan
57 Mahela Jayawardene Sri Lanka Virender Sehwag India
57 Kumar Sangakkara Sri Lanka Virender Sehwag India
56 Mahela Jayawardene Sri Lanka MS Dhoni India
56 Desmond Haynes West Indies Javed Miandad Pakistan
55 Sachin Tendulkar India Ricky Ponting Australia
55 Sanath Jayasuriya Sri Lanka Inzamam-ul-Haq Pakistan
55 Mahela Jayawardene Sri Lanka Yuvraj Singh India
55 Kumar Sangakkara Sri Lanka MS Dhoni India
54 Tillakaratne Dilshan Sri Lanka MS Dhoni India
53 Inzamam-ul-Haq Pakistan Rahul Dravid India
53 Richie Richardson West Indies Rameez Raza Pakistan
52 Sachin Tendulkar India Inzamam-ul-Haq Pakistan
52 Mohammad Azharuddin India Arjuna Ranatunga Sri Lanka
52 Aravinda de Silva Sri Lanka Saleem Malik Pakistan
51 Mohammad Azharuddin India Aravinda de Silva Sri Lanka
51 Javed Miandad Pakistan Richie Richardson West Indies
50 Kumar Sangakkara Sri Lanka Yuvraj Singh India
50 Wasim Akram Pakistan Aravinda de Silva Sri Lanka
50 Allan Border Australia Viv Richards West Indies

(Bharath Seervi is a cricket statistician who is obsessed with digging numbers, facts and records related to the game. An active member of Society of Cricket Statisticians of India, he blogs at www.cricketseervistats.blogspot.com. He can be followed on Twitter at www.twitter.com/SeerviBharath and on Facebook at www.facebook.com/SeerviCricket)

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