Rangana heads Top 10 test bowlers of the year 2014 list
Thursday, 25 December 2014 00:00
-
- {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}
Dilruwan Perera and Shaminda Eranga among top performers as well
New Delhi: Despite cricket being batsmen’s game, test bowlers can take pride in their performance during the year 2014.
The year witnessed some of the great bowling performances from across the cricketing World. Indian lanky pacer Ishant Sharma too figures in the list of top ten test bowlers.
From a year in which the pacers ruled the roost and spinners though very few, found new-found success in tough conditions, we pick ten defining bowling performances.
Sri Lanka’s mystery spinner Rangana Herath claims the top spot in the list with 60 wickets in 20 test innings with an economy of just 2.69 and average of 27.45.
Herath recorded the best test bowling figures of 9/127 in 12 years in second Test against Pakistan in August 2014.
He followed the feat with another 5-wicket haul in the second innings of the match and finished with a career-best 14/184, surpassing his previous mark of 12/157 against Bangladesh last year
Previously in the first test he took 9 wickets, 3 in first and 6 in second.
Only 16 men have taken nine wickets or more in a Test innings. The last man to accomplish the feat was Herath’s former team-mate Muttiah Muralitharan, who took 9-51 against Zimbabwe at Kandy in 2002.
He has the maximum five-wicket hauls (5) in the year 2014.
Number two is Mitchell Johnson (Australia). One of the most feared fast bowlers in the world, Mitchell Johnson is at no. 2. He has second highest 42 wickets in his pocket in 16 innings at an economy of 3.06 and average of 21.92.
Johnson took a freak 12-127 in February 2014 to hand South Africa their worst loss at home in almost 60 years.
He also had the second best bowling figures in an innings with 7 wickets for 68 runs which was followed by another five wicket haul.
His match figures are the best by a fast bowler against South Africa since their readmission into Test cricket.
Johnson’s 12-wicket match haul is the first by a fast bowler in a Test in more than eight years: the last time it happened was in September 2005, when Irfan Pathan took 12 for 126 against Zimbabwe in Harare.
At number three is James Anderson (England). The English fast bowler who routed Indian batsmen in 5-test series in July-August 2014 sits at no. 3 in the list. In 16 innings, he has 40 wickets, just two short of second ranked Johnson. His economy rate and average has been 2.68 and 22.15 respectively.
He recorded his best bowling figures in the year with the only five wicket haul (5/53) in third test against India followed by 2 wickets in the second innings. His match figures of 7/77 in the test have been the best of him in the year.
He was the leading wicket taker in the series with 25 wickets in 10 innings at an economy of just 2.58 and was also adjudged as Man of the Series jointly with India’s Bhuvneshwar Kumar.
The rest of the Top 10 are Dale Steyn (South Africa), 5) Ishant Sharma (India), 6) Dilruwan Perera (Sri Lanka), 7) Nathan Lyon (Australia), 8) Stuart Broad (England), 9) Sulieman Benn (West Indies) and 10) Shaminda Eranga (Sri Lanka).
