Harbhajan Singh joins the elite 400 club

At Roseau  Indians were 8 without loss after bowling out W Indies for 204 – three days remain but rain continues to threaten the outcome of a possible result.

Less than 50 overs of play in the second day – Ishant bowled well to take another 5 for.  But for statistical reasons, it was a day to remember for the offie Harbhajan Singh.   Harbhajan Singh dislodged Darren Sammy and Baugh to become only the 11th bowler - and the third Indian - to take 400 Test wickets.

When the 3 test series commenced, Bhaji had 7 more to complete the milestone – he achieved it yesterday in his 96^th test – has bowled close to 27000 deliveries.  The WI captain went out for a bat-pad catch and Carlton Baugh went for a cut, lost his stumps presenting them to Harbhajan…

The elite list has 11 cricketers with Murali topping with astonishing 800.  The top 3 are spinners – Murali, Warne and Kumble – all above 600.  there are 24 in the list of bowlers who had captured 300 wickets and more in Test cricket and only 6 amongst them are spinners.

Player	Country	Mat	Balls	Runs	Wkts
Muthiah Muralitharan	Sri Lanka	133	44039	18180	800
Shane Warne	Australia	145	40705	17995	708
Anil Kumble	India	132	40850	18355	619
Glenn McGrath	Australia	124	29248	12186	563
Courtney Walsh	West Indies	132	30019	12688	519
Kapil Dev Nikanj	India	131	27740	12867	434
Richard Hadlee	New Zealand	86	21918	9611	431
Shaun Pollock	South Africa	108	24353	9733	421
Wasim Akram	Pakistan	104	22627	9779	414
C Ambrose	West Indies	98	22103	8501	405
Harbhajan Singh	India	96*	26981	12722	400
Makhaya Ntini	South Africa	101	20834	11242	390
Ian Botham	England	102	21815	10878	383
Malcolm Marshall	West Indies	81	17584	7876	376
Waqar Younis	Pakistan	87	16224	8788	373
Imran Khan	Pakistan	88	19458	8258	362
Dennis Lillee	Australia	70	18467	8493	355
Chaminda Vaas	Sri Lanka	111	23438	10501	355
Daniel Vetori	New Zealand	105	26860	11724	345
Alan Donald	South Africa	72	15519	7344	330
Bob Willis	England	90	17357	8190	325
Brett Lee	Australia	76	16531	9554	310
Lance Gibbs	West Indies	79	27115	8989	309
Fred Trueman	England	67	15178	6625	307

For long it was England’s Fred Trueman who had 307 scalps, Lance
Gibbs outsmarted him and ended up at 309 – for some time it was Dennis Lillee perched on top with 355, beaten by Richard Hadlee who ended up with 431.  our own Kapil Dev held the record with a while with 434 scalps before Walsh, Warne, Murali, Warne, Murali took over.  Statistics could at best be only a pointer as these wickets were obtained at various stages, on different pitches, with or without support of the close-in cardon, against different quality opponents.  Yet the numbers would remain……..

In a different context, 11 bowlers have scalped more than 300 in One dayers and that list comprises of 3 Sri Lankans, 3 Pakistanis and 2 Indians.

Player	Country	Mat	Balls	Runs	Wkts
Muthiah Muralitharan	Sri Lanka	350	18811	12326	534
Wasim Akram	Pakistan	356	18186	11812	502
Waqar Younis	Pakistan	262	12698	9919	416
Chaminda Vaas	Sri Lanka	322	15775	11014	400
Shaun Pollock	South Africa	303	15712	9631	393
Glenn McGrath	Australia	250	12970	8391	381
Brett Lee	Australia	201	10212	8028	349
Anil Kumble	India	271	14496	10412	337
Sanath Jayasuriya	Sri Lanka	445	14874	11871	323
Javagal Srinath	India	229	11935	8847	315
Shahid Afridi	Pakistan	325	14056	10782	315

Regards – S. Sampathkumar.