Stats: LBW hits the 10K mark at Port Elizabeth
The Boxing Day Test matches at the Melbourne Cricket Ground featuring Australia and Pakistan and St. George’s Park in Port Elizabeth between South Africa and Sri Lanka are more than halfway through with a number of interesting stats popping up on each match day. The most intriguing one over the past three days, however, has to be the fact that Hashim Amla became the 10000th batsmen to be dismissed Leg Before Wicket in Test cricket history.
Amla was dismissed by left-arm pacer Nuwan Pradeep just 2 runs shy of a half-century thus enabling the duo to become part of a cricket history that has two Indian legends at the top when it comes to this particular mode of dismissal.
While batting maestro Sachin Tendulkar is the batsman with the most number of LBW dismissals (63) against his name in Test crickety history, spin legend and current coach of the Indian team, Anil Kumble, is the bowler who has got rid of the maximum number of opposition batsmen trapped in front of the wickets.
England Test skipper Alastair Cook is the only active cricketer in the Top 9 who has a chance to catch up with the Little Blaster but he is still 16 dismissals away from matching the Indian legend’s numbers.
| No | Batsman | No of times dismissed LBW in Tests |
| 1 | Sachin Tendulkar | 63 |
| 2 | Shivnarine Chanderpaul | 55 |
| 3 | Graham Gooch | 50 |
| 4 | Alastair Cook | 47 |
| 5 | Ricky Ponting | 47 |
| 6 | Graeme Smith | 44 |
| 7 | Younis Khan | 43 |
| 8 | Jacques Kallis | 40 |
| 9 | Alec Stewart | 40 |
When it comes to percentage of LBW dismissals, it is another South African in JP Duminy who tops the list with 19 of his 53 dismissals till date in Test cricket being LBW – a high 35.85%. Australia’s Joe Darling, who played 34 Tests, holds the distinction of not being dismissed LBW even a single time in the 60 times the opposition managed to get rid of him.
The world’s three highest Test wicket-takers – the accomplished spin trio of Muttiah Muralitharan, Shane Warne and Anil Kumble – top the list of bowlers with most number of LBW dismissals as well but not in that particular order with the Indian leg-spinner coming out on top with 156 dismissals, which is 6 more than Murali and 18 more than Warne’s tally.
| No | Bowler | Most LBW dismissals |
| 1 | Anil Kumble | 156 |
| 2 | Muttiah Muralitharan | 150 |
| 3 | Shane Warne | 138 |
| 4 | Wasim Akram | 119 |
| 5 | Glenn McGrath | 113 |
| 6 | Kapil Dev | 111 |
| 7 | Waqar Younis | 110 |
| 8 | Chaminda Vaas | 100 |