Most combined wickets by a bowling pair in Test Cricket

In matches Anderson-Broad played together, they have aggregated 23 five-wicket hauls.

 

English duo James Anderson and Stuart Broad completed 500 wickets between them in the 67 test matches they played together. They achieved the feat in the Southampton test against India. Bharath Seervi compiles the list of bowling pairs grabbing most wickets in the history of Test cricket.

 

English opening bowling partners James Anderson and Stuart Broad achieved a remarkable feat in Test cricket. They both have taken 500 wickets in the matches they played together. In fact, in the 67 Test matches they played together, they both have taken 505 wickets between them – 264 by Anderson and 241 by Broad.

 

James Anderson has played 97 Tests and Stuart Broad has played 72. Among which they both have played together in 67 tests from 2008 till date. With their 500 wickets mark, they became the eighth bowling pair to reach the mark and the first pair from England. They are also the fifth pair of pacemen to reach the milestone.

 

In the matches Anderson-Broad played together, they have aggregated 23 five-wicket hauls and ten-wicket hauls. The combined average of the pair is 29.37 and the strike rate being 58.90 in the test matches they played together. 505 wickets in 67 tests results to 7.54 wickets per match by the duo. There were a total of 1115 wickets taken by English players in the matches in which Anderson and Broad appeared together. 505 wickets by the pair out of 1115 wickets amount to 45.29% of the team’s wickets.

 

With Anderson and Broad reaching 500 wickets, below is an analysis of the bowling pairs with most test wickets combined, number of wickets per match by them and percentage of team’s total wickets.

 

Most combined wickets by a pace bowling pair in Test Cricket (300 or more wickets)

Wickets	Bowler 1	Wkts 1	Bowler 2	Wkts 2	Period	Team	Mat	Avg	S/R	5 WI	10 WM	W/M	% Team
762	CEL Ambrose	389	CA Walsh	373	1988-2000	West Indies	95	22.67	56.15	36	5	8.02	49.16
559	WasimAkram	282	WaqarYounis	277	1985-2002	Pakistan	61	22.12	45.65	37	7	9.16	55.79
547	SM Pollock	377	JH Kallis	170	1995-2008	South Africa	93	25.99	61.78	18	1	5.88	35.27
538	M Ntini	350	JH Kallis	188	1998-2009	South Africa	93	33.43	64.71	18	3	5.78	34.14
505*	JM Anderson	264	SCJ Broad	241	2008-2014	England	67	29.37	58.90	23	4	7.54	45.29
490	M Ntini	255	SM Pollock	235	1998-2008	South Africa	63	26.24	56.27	20	4	7.78	45.24
484	GD McGrath	274	JN Gillespie	210	1996-2005	Australia	58	23.01	51.65	23	1	8.34	46.05
476	IT Botham	254	RGD Willis	222	1977-1984	England	60	25.18	53.58	29	3	7.93	49.12
463*	DW Steyn	272	M Morkel	191	2008-2014	South Africa	54	25.38	48.40	22	3	8.57	50.44
424	DW Steyn	335	JH Kallis	89	2004-2013	South Africa	65	25.46	48.68	22	5	6.52	37.62
397	AA Donald	208	SM Pollock	189	1995-2002	South Africa	47	21.84	51.35	22	1	8.45	50.13
371	GD McGrath	194	B Lee	177	1999-2007	Australia	45	25.31	52.13	17	2	8.24	44.11
367	MJ Hoggard	200	A Flintoff	167	2001-2006	England	49	29.11	55.46	9	1	7.49	48.80
345	RR Lindwall	195	KR Miller	150	1946-1956	Australia	51	23.00	60.11	16	0	6.76	39.75
340	SJ Harmison	174	MJ Hoggard	166	2002-2008	England	45	30.61	55.72	13	2	7.56	45.09
338	MD Marshall	201	CA Walsh	137	1984-1991	West Indies	42	22.48	52.50	16	2	8.05	46.30
337	RJ Hadlee	207	BL Cairns	130	1974-1985	New Zealand	42	26.09	63.62	22	4	8.02	53.07
331	J Garner	170	MA Holding	161	1979-1987	West Indies	40	21.97	51.99	13	1	8.28	47.83
322	MD Marshall	170	J Garner	152	1980-1987	West Indies	36	21.72	49.58	15	2	8.94	51.27
310	RJ Hadlee	195	EJ Chatfield	115	1977-1989	New Zealand	39	25.39	63.00	20	6	7.95	55.66
304	CEL Ambrose	154	IR Bishop	150	1989-1998	West Indies	39	22.62	51.90	16	2	7.79	49.03
303	SJ Harmison	154	A Flintoff	149	2002-2009	England	44	31.59	59.94	7	0	6.89	41.39

Wkts 1 and wkts 2 denote the number of wickets taken by bowler 1 and bowler 2 respectively in the matches they played together.

W/M denotes the rate of wickets per match by the pair.

% Team denotes the percentage of wickets of team’s total wickets.

 

The bowling pair with most combined wickets is the Caribbean pace battery of Courtney Walsh and Curtly Ambrose. In the 95 matches they played together from 1988 to 2000, they aggregated a record 762 wickets at a combined bowling average of 22.67 and strike rate of 56.15. They took an average of more than 8 wickets per match and took team’s 49.16% of the total wickets.

 

Other bowling pairs with 500+ combined wickets are Pakistan’s Wasim Akram and Waqar Younis and South Africa’s two pairs – Shaun Pollock & Jacques Kallis, Makhaya Ntini & Jacques Kallis, Kallis did not have a major contribution though. There is atleast one pair of pace bowlers with combined wickets of 300 from each of the top eight teams except from Sri Lanka and India.

 

Pakistan’s pair Wasim Akram and Waqar Younis has the best combined strike rate (45.65), highest number of combined 5 wicket hauls (37), highest number of combined 10 wicket hauls (7), highest rate of wickets per match (9.16) and highest % of team’s wickets (55.79%) as well. It is enough to rate them as one of the best bowling pair in the history of Test Cricket.

 

Malcolm Marshall and Joel Garner have the best combined bowling average of 21.72 among the above 22 pace bowling pairs with combined tally of 300+ wickets.

 

Now, let us see the overall bowling pairs – combination of pacers and spinners – who dominated the field. The table below lists the bowling pairs with atleast 300 combined wickets. It does not include the pace bowling pairs which are listed in the previous table.

 

Most combined wickets by a bowling pair in Test Cricket (300 or more wickets)

Wickets	Bowler 1	Wkts 1	Bowler 2	Wkts 2	Period	Team	Mat	Avg	S/R	5WI	10 WM	W/M	% Team
1001	SK Warne	513	GD McGrath	488	1993-2007	Australia	104	23.17	53.21	51	9	9.63	53.36
895	M Muralitharan	586	WPUJC Vaas	309	1994-2009	Sri Lanka	95	24.11	58.01	57	20	9.42	59.47
501	A Kumble	281	Harbhajan Singh	220	1998-2008	India	54	30.22	65.04	36	9	9.28	57.52
474	Harbhajan Singh	268	Zaheer Khan	206	2001-2012	India	59	30.27	61.07	25	5	8.03	49.07
455	GP Swann	236	JM Anderson	219	2008-2013	England	56	29.20	59.51	25	4	8.13	47.69
435	SK Warne	269	JN Gillespie	176	1996-2006	Australia	53	27.50	56.19	20	5	8.21	45.60
421	SK Warne	246	B Lee	175	1999-2007	Australia	45	27.26	50.96	21	4	9.36	50.06
418	LR Gibbs	237	GS Sobers	181	1958-1974	West Indies	60	30.56	88.41	20	2	6.97	41.14
412	A Kumble	225	J Srinath	187	1992-2002	India	52	28.56	65.94	20	4	7.92	52.55
406	GP Swann	223	SCJ Broad	183	2008-2013	England	50	29.31	58.07	23	4	8.12	48.05
394	Kapil Dev	243	RJ Shastri	151	1981-1992	India	79	35.15	83.00	11	1	4.99	37.81
368	BS Chandrasekhar	184	BS Bedi	184	1966-1978	India	42	27.96	68.15	24	2	8.76	58.69
363	CS Martin	186	DL Vettori	177	2001-2012	New Zealand	58	36.52	74.22	16	2	6.26	37.81
346	AK Davidson	177	R Benaud	169	1953-1963	Australia	41	23.89	71.66	24	2	8.44	49.15
336	WW Hall	192	GS Sobers	144	1958-1969	West Indies	48	28.76	66.26	13	1	7.00	40.38
332	A Kumble	200	Z Khan	132	2001-2008	India	43	32.95	61.23	12	1	7.72	46.96
332	Imran Khan	197	Abdul Qadir	135	1979-1990	Pakistan	44	26.51	59.29	20	6	7.55	47.91
331	BS Bedi	169	EAS Prasanna	162	1967-1979	India	43	30.02	78.91	17	1	7.70	49.63
316	WaqarYounis	177	Mushtaq Ahmed	139	1990-2001	Pakistan	40	26.75	53.43	19	5	7.90	47.59
313	WasimAkram	185	Mushtaq Ahmed	128	1990-2000	Pakistan	38	25.01	54.32	19	3	8.24	50.57
307	SK Warne	166	CJ McDermott	141	1992-1996	Australia	35	25.53	60.64	15	4	8.77	50.74
303	RJ Hadlee	208	JG Bracewell	95	1980-1990	New Zealand	37	24.59	58.01	25	6	8.19	54.01

Wkts 1 and Wkts 2 denote the number of wickets taken by bowler 1 and bowler 2 respectively in the matches they played together.

W/M denotes the rate of wickets per match by the pair.

% Team denotes the percentage of wickets of team’s total wickets.

 

Taking into account all the bowling pairs the highest number of wickets taken combined is 1001 by Australian pair of Shane Warne and Glenn McGrath. They both appeared in 104 matches together for Australia from 1993 to 2007. Warne took 513 and McGrath took 488 wickets to make it 1001 wickets. They had an average of 23.17 and took wicket every 53.21 balls. Their combined tally of 5 wicket hauls was 51 and 9 ten wicket hauls. They took 9.63 wickets per match and Australia’s 53.36% of wickets were taken by them.

 

Next to Warne-McGrath pair is the pair from Sri Lanka of Muttiah Muralitharan and ChamindaVaas. They grabbed 895 wickets in their 95 appearances. Their pair was much dominated by Muralitharan. He took 586 of those wickets compared to Vaas’ 309.

 

The spin pair with most combined wickets is India’s Anil Kumble-Harbhajan Singh’s pair. They appeared in 54 matches together and took 501 wickets at average of 30.22 and strike rate of 65.04. They took 9.28 wickets per match and 57.52% of the team’s wickets were by them. There are only three other spin pairs with combined wickets of more than 300. Two of those are again Indians – Bishan Bedi & Bhagwat Chandrasekhar and Bishan Bedi & Erapalli Prasanna – and one from West Indies – Lance Gibbs & Garry Sobers. Considering Garry Sobers as purely spinner is quite wrong as he bowled medium pace and opened innings in later part of his career.

 

The section from New Zealand is dominated by Richard Hadlee. He took 300+ wickets in pair with three bowlers – Lance Cairns, John Bracewell and Even Chatfield. Sri Lanka does not have any other pair other than Muralitharan-Vaas. Jacques Kallis finds his name with three pairs but his personal combination was relatively low.

 

The highest average of number of wickets per match is 9.63 by Warne-McGrath and highest percentage of team’s wickets is 59.47 by Muralitharan-Vaas. Indian pairs of Bedi-Chandrasekhar and Kumble-Harbhajan are second and third in the list for highest percentage of team’s wickets.

 

The worst bowling average is 36.52 by Vettori-Martin for New Zealand whereas the worst strike rate is 88.41 by Gibbs-Sobers. Kapil Dev-Ravi Shastri have lowest wickets per match (4.99) and Ntini-Kallis have lowest percentage of team’s wickets (34.14%).

 

Note: The list does not include the pairs formed by one of the players being a non-regular bowler and took a considerable amount of wickets. For example pairs formed by likes of Sanath Jayasuriya, Carl Hooper, etc. are not included.

 

(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 atwww.twitter.com/SeerviBharath and on Facebook at www.facebook.com/SeerviCricket)

 

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