Stats: List of players who picked up a wicket on their first ever ball in ODIs
Bangladesh’s Mossadek Hussain became the 24th player to pick up a wicket of his first-ever ball in One-Day International cricket when he dismissed Afghanistan’s Hashmatullah Shahidi during the 2nd ODI in the three-match series held at Mirpur on Wednesday.
Hussain had a memorable debut scoring 45 runs at a-run-a-ball before becoming the first Bangladeshi cricketer to pick up the unique feat with the ball. He ended up with superb figures of 30/2 in his 10 overs, but his night ended in disappointment as the visitors edged a closely-fought low scoring affair at the Sher-e-Bangla stadium, thanks to a brilliant all-round performance by former skipper Mohammad Nabi.
Despite the disappointing result, the home crowd, as well as the Bangladesh team management, would have been thrilled about the fantastic debut of Mossadek who has been talked about in the domestic circuit for quite some time now. Having scored seven hundreds in just 18 first-class matches thus far with an average of above 70, Mossadek’s biggest strength undoubtedly lies with the bat but as he showed on his ODI debut, he can be equally effective with the ball.
Also read: 5 best innings by Indian batsmen at the Eden Gardens
He joined a list which interestingly features more world-class batsman than bowlers with West Indies’ two-time World Cup winning skipper Pakistan’s legendary batsman Inzamam-ul-Haq leading the way. Inzamam, in fact, picked up the wicket of the legendary Brian Lara to make it quite a memorable first scalp.
Former Indian opener Sadagopan Ramesh also features with his only ODI wicket coming in the same match which saw West Indies’ Wavell Hinds also joining the list making it a truly unique feat.
Of the 23 players to have achieved the feat before Mossadek did so, only four have gone on to pick up more than 50 wickets in ODIs – India’s Bhuvaneshwar Kumar, West Indies’ Fidel Edwards, Ireland’s hard-hitting all-rounder Kevin O’Brien and Sri Lanka’s Thilan Thushara.
Whether Mossadek goes on to become the fifth player to reach the milestone of 50 ODI wickets only time will tell, but if Bangladesh chief selector, Minhajul Abedin’s words are to be believed they have higher expectations from Mossadek with the bat.
"Mosaddek has done very well in domestic cricket, which includes the longer-version tournaments, in the last two years," Abedin said . "He did well in the Dhaka Premier League and we feel he is ready."
First 10 Players who picked up a wicket on their first-ever ball in ODIs.
| No | Player | Opposition | Date |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Geoff Arnold (England) | Australia | 24 Aug 1972 |
| 2 | Clive Llyod (West Indies) | England | 7 Aug 1973 |
| 3 | Shahid Mahboob (Pakistan) | India | 31 Dec 1982 |
| 4 | Shane Thomson (New Zeland) | India | 1 Mar 1990 |
| 5 | Inzamam-Ul-Haq (Pakistan) | West Indies | 24 Nov 1991 |
| 6 | Evertom Matambanadzo (Zimbabwe) | Pakistan | 3 Nov 1996 |
| 7 | Sadagopan Ramesh (India) | West Indies | 6 Sep 1999 |
| 8 | Wavell Hinds (West Indies) | India | 6 Sep 1999 |
| 9 | Josephat Ababu (Kenya) | Zimbabwe | 25 Sep 1999 |
| 10 | Charitha Budhika (Sri Lanka) | Zimbabwe | 26 Oct 2001 |