I think pakistan produced the best bowlers in the history of cricket. I'm not sayin that because i'm a pakistani but if you look at the stats you will see what i'm talking about. Waqar was a great great bowler and to this day, I watch his videos on youtube to get some inspiration.
[[
With one qualification. In Odi matches.
Ananth:
]]

Correction:
" Mendis, with his mercurial start to his career, just about managed to get the additional wicket in the 4-match streak"

It is actually 5-match streak in which Mendis has 20 wickets, 1 more than Waqar's 19
Thanks. Since corrected.
Ananth:
]]

Great Stats..I don't think I recognized how consistent Salman Butt's been before coming across this article. Though I thought I might run across Sehwag or Gambhir on the way.

India have two bowlers who took more than 80 wkts in their initial 50 ODIs. Yet Agarkar and Irfan Pathan's demise of bowling form is beyond comprehension. Has it got to do with the fact that both at some stage of their career were looked upon as the one 'allrounder' India was searching for. Moreover, their economy rates for the second half of their career are quiet high.

No better sight in bowling than Waquar's intense rampaging charge to the crease, launching the ball with such ferocity with each wicket celebrated demonstratively

How can you decide on a streak when tendulkar has not played a single ODI since his 200 innings...how does one know that it is not the beginning of a so called 'streak'. Te larger point I am trying to make is that you can not pick few innings from the middle of nowhere.
[[
It is understandable that readers are peplexed about how this is done.
Every innings played by every batsman is taken and the 1-10 match streak values determined. Then I go to the next innings until I reach their last innings. Then their individual best values are drawn up.
When all the player values have been drawn up, the best amongst these bests is selected.
Not one innings is missed. There is nothing manual which is being done. It is a complex computer program which analyzes each one of 60000 or so innings played and determines the 1-10 match values starting with these innings.
I get the feeling the absence of Tendulkar in these tables which has caused this question. Do not forget that he is at the head of the 1 and 50 match streaks.
Ananth:
]]

By a chance , absolutely incredibly,pakistan is a den of world class fast bowlers!the likes of imran,sarfaraz,wasim,waqar,aqib,Akter, in the past n Gul,Aamer,aasif today r totally matchless..and even today pak continues to b the best bowling side with all its variety.being an indian,one cant help but admire them

There is certainly a flaw in the system, as it is not considering the opposition strength into the account. For example, Vaas used to get all over minnows (ex 2003 league matches). Just a thought...[[
After mentioning this about a million time myself, I was waiting for a comment tlike this.
All wicket tallies would have minnow wickets amongst them. Also tell the New Zealanders that the Bangladeshis are minnows.
Ananth:
]]

Good to see people realize that Pakistan has been the best country for producing fast, slow or medium arm bowlers....

Kudos Anantha. Great work. For me Waqar defined fast bowling, till date does. Good to see him ruling the charts.

Am I the only one who prefers the format used for tests where you provided 1-2 lines of context after each streak?

Anyway, still remains a good analysis. I liked the idea of showing 50 match streak. Most of these guys were phenomenal during that peak 2-3 year period. Irfan Pathan seems to be a unique case in both the batsmen and bowlers 50 match list, having a great streak at the beginning of his career before completely fizzling out.
[[
Ad
I was just trying to combine the bowling and batting streaks into one article since I have so many ideas in front of me.
Ananth:
]]

Like always .. enjoyed the analysis. Waqar and Mendis's presence wasn't as much a surprise as was Saqlain and Agarkar's absence ( then again, I guess they were more 'consistent' at 3/4 wkts per match than racking up a streak like this ). I was totally expecting Amla to show up for his great run this year. I'm not sure of the complexity involved - but is there a way to gather stats for catches too ( non- wicketkeepers, of course!).

is that Salman Butt's famous streak against the great bowlers of Bangladesh & Zimbabwe?
[[
Why the sarcasm. Everyone gets cheap runs or wickets.
I suggest you ask the New Zealand batsmen about the Bangladeshi bowlers.
Ananth:
]]

great job done. nice idea but must have required hard work.

Great article. Waqar was an awesome bowler indeed and nice to see him get his due. However the surprising thing for me in this article was how prolific Salman Butt has been for a part of his ODI career. That was something very surprising indeed.

Wonderful Work. Greatly appreciated. Being a Comp. Sc. student, I'm sure it was no easy feat writing such a complex program.

Waqar was indeed the great bowler of his time..still he is trying to put pakistani bowling line to the top...Good to see him holding the best ranking till date...

Wonderful work ananth. It was always pleasing to watch waqar and wasim bowling in pair and getting wickets especially those swinging yorkers. Just surprised to see some great names missing like inzamam, jayawardne from the 1-50 odi list.

England in ODIs in the 90s were as minnowesque as it gets! So, does SHAHABUDEEN & co want to discount those wickets that Waqar would've got against them as well?
Vaas is an ODI legend. Just because he didn't sledge, tweet, appear on reality tv shows, or had a "bollywood look" doesn't mean he was anything less than a superstar. His (then record) 23 wickets in the 2003 WorldCup where SL only made it to the Semis is one bit of evidence that he performed well against all opposition. There was a time when the first ball of an ODI facing Vaas was the scariest prospect for a batsman! Especially if he was right handed.
These were some fantastic streaks by some fine bowlers. Please show some respect if you're a real cricket fan.
Thanks Ananth for extracting these numbers and sharing it with us. Perfect read for a lazy Sunday afternoon!

Anantha, can you post the link to the earlier Test match article that did the same evaluation with test match stats? I tried to find it from the archives but failed to locate it. Thanks.
[[
bowling
http://blogs.espncricinfo.com/itfigures/archives/2010/12/barnes_and_muralitharan_at_par.php

and

batting
http://blogs.espncricinfo.com/itfigures/archives/2010/11/

Ananth:
]]

great facts....waqar i feel is a very underrated bowler....waseem nd waqar when on song were untouchable...todays cricket has no true genuine fast bowlers.....roach is good....steyn hardly clocks 145.....akhter is old now...jhonson can be quick sometimes...bt the future of fast bowling to me doesnt look very bright....

Odd how the only ones trying to make flaws off Anantha's system are those too biased towards their own favourites, lets be more sportsmen like, shall we? x) Great work Anantha x)

Great work Ananth, no doubt about the quality of Waqar and Waseem bowling together, that time 200 score by Pakistan was also looked defendable.

Apart from deducing that waqar indeed was destructive one reaches the conclusion that Saqlain Mushtaq indeed revolutionized off spin bowling. Indeed he made it sexy again. The first with the doosra bowled legally as opposed to how the majority in the world bowl it today. One really has to admire the man for his innovations. Developing a new ball at the highest level indeed has to involve genius. What a bowler he was. Indeed, it seems that those days of the 1990s till the beginning of the year 2000 cricket indeed was played by a different level of superstars.

No surprise that Sachin Mr consistent tops the 50 match run table. He is indeed the most consistent batsman the world has ever known a true legend of the game. HE has carried the hopes of a nation. Some critize him for his lack of matchwinning knocks as opposed to maybe a Laxman. However, that needs to be countered to a certain degree by the fact that for the better part of a decade he was Indias only batsman so to speak.

Good analysis Anantha.And a useful one too. .
And good to see the name of Vass is highlighted in the analysis.He was one of the best left armers in the world, second only to Wasim.People have started to compare Zaheer with Wasim, but the truth is that Zaheer is not even as good as Vaas.If you don't believe me go and compare the statistics of the two players.
@CricketPissek: Completely agreed with you.Cheers...

Can we have the similer type of list for centuries also ?
[[
Test Batting streaks work has already been done.
Ananth:
]]

Great Work and Great Bowler indeed. Waqar Younis will always be remembered as the greatest exponent of reverse swing and the number of wickets he got through LBW and bowled were amazing and now a days very rare to see.

@Anantha

great analysis!!!

there seems to be some mistake.
Umar gul in his 50 mts. streak has taken only 48 wkts.
I assume it must be atleast 60-70.

Arjun.
[[
Yes, Arjun. There is a problem with specific bowlers who have bowled in between 50 and 100 matches. I will correct the tables and repost.
Ananth:
]]

Very nice to read stats... enjoyed it more than the test stats. It is due to a very personal point of view. Tests have a long history and I only have 10-20 years of enjoyment period for that. But, I grew up with a good slice of oneday history and can quite relate to the player achievements. Hence I can enjoy this statistics more because, it numerizes (hope I haven't invented a new word here ;-)) my own enjoyment.
[[
Unni
That is a beautiful term. I will remember and use it, with due credit to you.
Ananth:
]]

Good analysis by Anand. Really appreciated. But I am annoyed by some of readers comments suggesting new ideas to be incorporated into analysis. Carry on Anand

Great work. And good to see waqar's performance. Thanks Waqar, You and wasim really rocked for Pakistan.

Dear all
Waqar is very good bowler he has finish his career now what about shoaib Akhtar?

Fun article.
I have always maintained that Saqlain is one of the most underrated bowlers of all time.
For all practical purposes he was the inventor of the modern day "doosra"...the adoption of which so dramatically affected Murali's career and the effect he had on Righties.
I've seen Saqlain at his best flummox the best of them- Tendulkar,Lara and co. included.
Something not too many spinners can claim.
Unfortunately, injuries curtailed what could perhaps have been the greatest spin bowling career ever.
So nice to see these odd analyses bring about the great forgotten bowlers when at their best.

I believe this is the first time i am not fully (for the lack of a proper word) convinced by the stats in this blog. ...only the batsmen part.

Middle order batsmen might be excluded from the list as chasing a low total the batsman would end at 5 not out...and it would be counted as 5 runs in the innings or other times getting out at 20 runs on 7 balls to accelerate in the end. And that is why i believe the top 50 innings is loaded with openers + No 3.

But i guess there is no way to eliminate this bug without introducing a few others.
[[
I am not trying to be fair to all batsmen, I confess. I am trying to say who scored most runs or captured most wickets in 1-10 and 50 matches.
Ananth:
]]

Arjun, there was a minor mistake and the tables, only the 50+ streak table has been re-posted. Those 100 odd matches which had the super-sub were the culprits.

@Ibrahim - completely agree with you - Waqar is very underrated. IMO, he's the best bowler in test cricket I've seen. Didn't have all the 'weapons' but had one for every situation, which is more important. Who cares if you can't bowl a perfect leg-cutter when you can knock over any batsman with an inswinging yorker?

@Ananth - stats look like a jumping of point for fuller analysis. Strike rate for batsmen and economy rates for bowlers are as critical as wickets and runs, IMO. I would have ordered my team to not get Sherwin Campbell out, with Lara waiting in the wings!

for example, without remembering the matches concerned, I'd bet my biceps Amrose's streak was more valuable than many above it or Jayasuriya's run greater than Kirsten's.

Saqlain was amazing - only spinner who i saw pin down guys like Sidhu, Azhar to the crease. Shame Lara didn't play too much of him - i'd pay to watch that contest. Waqar could be very expensive, but lethally damaging.