Cricket is an extremely popular sport all around the world, especially in the Commonwealth countries.. Players also have a huge fan base all over the world. The competitive nature of Cricket makes it more interesting to watch. There have been many instances where situations have led to extraordinary records being made and then broken. So, here we look upon some mind blowing facts about Cricket.

1.Ravichandran Ashwin

He is the only player to dismiss all opposition players in a test series. He achieved this unique landmark in 2013 in the test series against Australia which was held in India. Ashwin took 29 wickets in 4 matches. Australia had used 16 players in 4 test matches during that series which were all dismissed by Ashwin once or more than once.

2. Shahid Afridi

Shahid Afridi played 398 One-Day International matches, where he scored 8064 runs with the help of 6 centuries and 39 half centuries. But he had never played 100 balls in an innings. Highest number of balls faced by him was 94 in an innings of 124 runs.

3. Sharjah Stadium

This stadium in UAE has hosted most no. of International ODI matches till this date (240 ODIs). People perceive that it would be Lord’s or MCC, but it is Sharjah Stadium.

4. Muttiah Muralitharan 

He is the player who has bowled the most no. of maiden overs in international cricket. He has bowled 1994 maiden overs (which means 11964 bowls). Muralidharan is also the only test player to take 800 wickets in his career.

5. Ryan Ten Doeschate 

He has the highest cricket ODI average which is 67.00 playing for Netherlands. The second highest ODI average is of Virat Kohli which is 59.33. Presently, no one looks even near to him.

6. Cricket in Olympics

Cricket was included in the Olympics only twice. The first time being in 1896 in the Athens Olympics. But that year competition didn’t occur because there were not enough teams to compete. The second time was in 1900 at the Paris Olympics. In that also, only two teams could compete- Great Britain and France. Great Britain won the Gold Medal.

7. Ishant’s Unfortunate Record

Ishant Sharma has unfortunately played a key role (Not only with the ball) in all the three highest individual scores made by batsmen against India in the 21st century till now. Alistair Cook made 294 runs in 2011, Michael Clarke made 329* runs in 2012 and Brendon McCullum made 302 runs in 2014. In these Innings, Ishant dropped them all in the early phase of their Innings which in turn helped them to reach the scores.

8. David Warner

He holds a rare record. David Warner is the only Australian cricketer in the past 100 years of cricket history, who played his first international cricket match in 2009 without playing even a single first class match before that.

9. Bapu Nadkarni’s Economy Bowling

In a test match against England in 1964, Bapu Nadkarni achieved an astonishing feat. Well known for bowling accurate line which didn’t let batsmen to score against him, Nadkarni’s figures read 31-27-5-0 in this match! He bowled 131 consecutive dot balls. English batsmen quoted that he was ‘unhittable’.

10. South Africa vs West Indies

In a match against West Indies, South Africa made the whole team ball. West Indies piled up 747 runs batting for over 200 overs. So, all 11 players got a chance to bowl. AB de Villiers bowled 21 overs taking 2 wickets and wicketkeeper Mark Boucher bowled 1.2 overs with 1 wicket. So, both wicket keeper and standing wicket keeper took wickets. Interestingly the lead bowler Shaun Pollock went back to the pavilion without a wicket in his bag!

11. Jayasuriya’s ODI wickets

Sanath Jayasuriya has more number of ODI wickets than Shane Warne. He has taken 323 wickets in 445 matches. Warne has taken 293 wickets in 194 ODI appearances. It’s strange how an opening batsman has more ODI wickets than a legendary bowler!

12. Chris Martin and B.S. Chandrashekhar

They are the only players to take more wickets in test cricket than the number of runs scored. Martin has scored 123 runs in 71 test matches while he has taken 233 wickets in them. Chandrashekhar has scored 167 runs and taken 242 wickets in his test career.

13. Jacques Kallis Records

Jacquess Kallis is a gem of a cricketer. In Test Cricket, he scored 13289 runs at an average of 55.37, which is better than Tendulkar’s average of 53.78. While talking about bowling, he has taken 292 wickets in test cricket at an average of 32.65 which is better than Zaheer’s average of 32.94.

Only Rahul Dravid(210) and Mahela Jayawardene (205) have taken more number of catches than him(200) in test cricket (except wicketkeepers).

14. Adam Gilchrist

Adam Gilchrist holds a unique record of playing the most number of International Test matches from Debut without being dropped. Gilchrist played 96 test matches from 5th November 1999 to 24th January 2008 without ever being dropped from the Australian team.

15. Jack Hobbs’s Centuries

Sir Jack Hobbs has an amazing record of scoring 199 centuries in first class Cricket, which is the most by any batsman in first class. He is also the leading run getter with 61760 runs in first class Cricket. He is considered as one of the best batsmen of First class Cricket