Year-ender 2016: Domination of leg-spinners and other bowling statistics from ODIs

Rashid Khan has the bowling average of 19.50 across 22 wickets in 2016.

Top wicket-takers: Adam Zampa leads the list with 30 wickets, followed by Josh Hazlewood (29) and Adil Rashid (29). Zampa became second Australia leg-spinner to take 30 wickets in a year in ODIs after Shane Warne.

Right-arm bowlers picked 1,061 wickets in 2016 and left-arm bowlers 316. On the other hand, spinners picked up 450 wickets, while pacers had 916, the 2nd-lowest in this century.

Best figures in a match: Imran Tahir, with 7 for 45, followed by Sunil Narine, with 6 for 27. Tahir’s figures are the 3rd best by a spinner and best by a South Africa bowler.  

Most wickets on a single ground: Astonishingly, Nadeem Ahmed tops the chart with 12 wickets at Mission Road Ground, Mong Kok, Hong Kong. It includes 2 four-wicket hauls as well.

Most wickets in a series: Amit Mishra’s 15 wickets against New Zealand remains the record. Had Mishra taken another 4 wickets, he would have broken the all-time record for most wickets in a bilateral series, held by himself and Javagal Srinath’s 18 wickets in a bilateral ODI series.

Most wickets against a single opposition: Mishra takes top spot in this list as well, with 15 wickets against New Zealand, followed by Hazlewood with 13 wickets against the same opponent.

Best bowling average (20 wickets): Rashid Khan leads this list with his impressive average of 19.50 across 22 wickets, followed by Starc (19.69; 26 wickets). Rashid’s average is the best by any Afghan bowler in a calendar year.

Best bowling strike rate (20 wickets): Starc picked wickets at a strike rate of 26.2, the best by any bowler in 2016. He is followed by Hastings (27.1) and Henry (27.6).

Best economy rate (20 overs): Anshuman Rath of Hong Kong leads the list with an economy rate of 3.15 from 40 overs he bowled in 6 ODIs. He is followed by Yuzvendra Chahal (3.20 from 24 overs in 3 ODIs).

Most runs conceded: Mitchell Marsh leads this dubious chart. In fact, the 846 runs he conceded are the lowest by a bowler in this century who tops the annual chart.

Wahab Riaz conceded 110 runs against England in the 3rd ODI, and is currently second on the all-time list after Mick Lewis (113 against South Africa in 2006) and most expensive from Pakistan. On the other hand, Steyn became the most expensive bowler from South Africa (beating Wayne Parnell’s record of 95 runs against India in 2010).

Most 4-wicket hauls: A total of 6 bowlers took two 4-wicket hauls in 2016. They are: Jasprit Bumrah, Alastdair Evans, Hastings, McCarthy, Nadeem Ahmed and Adil Rashid. The record for most four-wicket hauls in a year is of 7 by Waqar Younis in 1990.

A total of 47 four-wicket hauls were taken by bowlers in 2016. There have been 1,610 four-fors in history now.

Most 5-wickets haul: 12 bowlers scalped a five-wicket haul each. The bowlers are Jake Ball, Hastings, Hazlewood, Matt Henry, Imad Wasim, Tahir, Luke Jongwe, Mishra, Narine, Kane Richardson, Dasun Shanaka and Chad Soper.

A total of 12 five-wicket hauls were claimed this year; the historical count is 434.

Soper’s 6 for 41 are the second-best figures from any Associate Nation.

Most wickets in wins: With 23 wickets Adil Rashid and Starc jointly holds the top spot in the list. A total of 789 wickets came on winning causes this year and takes the count to 29,123.

Most wickets in defeats: Dawlat Zadran and McCarthy lead the way here with 13 wickets each. A total of 532 wickets came in defeats this year and takes the count to 18,235.

Best figures by debutants: Shanaka and Ball were the only debutants to scalp 5-wicket hauls in their debut ODIs. Shanaka took 5 for 43, while Ball bagged the figures of 5 for 51.

Bowlers who entered 100-wicket club: Tahir, Starc and Riaz.

No bowler entered 200-wicket or any milestone club.

Hat-tricks: James Faulkner took the only hat-trick of the year, against Sri Lanka at Colombo. He dismissed Kusal Perera, Angelo Mathews and Thisara Perera.

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