5 instances when bowlers picked up 7 wickets for 20 runs or less in ODIs
Picking up wickets in One Day International cricket is a difficult art to master. With flat wickets, bigger bats and smaller boundaries, it is the batsmen who have continued to stamp their authority over bowlers across various formats of the game. Hence, the bowlers are under tremendous pressure to pick up wickets and help their sides to victories.
A bowler picking up 7 wickets in an ODI is considered to be a memorable achievement. However, if a bowler picks up a seven-wicket haul and concedes very few runs, the feat is nothing but extraordinary.
Out of the 4142 ODIs played till date, only twelve bowlers have managed to pick up 7 wickets or more in a game out of which just five of them have managed to achieve the feat by conceding twenty runs or less.
Here we have a look at the elite list of bowlers who have single-handedly won the match for their respective sides with some top flight performances.
#5 Andy Bichel- 7/20 against England
Andy Bichel was one of the finest fast bowlers to have come out of Australia. He represented Australia in 67 ODIs in a career spanning seven years from 1997 to 2004. During that period, he bowled 3257 deliveries, conceding 2463 runs and picked up 78 wickets at an average of 31.58 including 2 five-wicket hauls and one seven-wicket haul.
In a World Cup game against England at Port Elizabeth on 2nd March 2003, his sensational spell of fast bowling saw him pick up 7 wickets for 20 runs, the second-best bowling figures in World Cup history that helped the Australian to restrict England to 204. Later in the day, he stitched an important 73-run partnership along with Michael Bevan for the ninth wicket to steer Australia home. Needless to say, Bichel was a unsung hero of the victorious 2003 World Cup campaign.
Also read - World cup hat-tricks