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Stats: Quickest and slowest in terms of number innings and balls to take 200 wickets in T20 cricket

Pakistan's Saeed Ajmal is the quickest to reach 200 T20 wickets, but West Indies’ Kirshmar Santokie is tipped to break his record
 
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The number of players with 200 or more wickets in T20 cricket has now risen to 12. There were 10 bowlers with 200+ T20 wickets about 10 days ago, but two more joined them in consecutive days. Shahid Afridi took his 200th wicket on September 12 and Sohail Tanvir on September 13, both in the Haier Mobile T-20 Cup in Pakistan.

Afridi took his 200th wicket in his 176th innings in T20s while it was Tanvir’s 194th innings in which he reached the milestone. But there are other bowlers who did it in a lesser number of innings as well as number of deliveries bowled.

The first T20 cricket match was played on June 13, 2003 in England. There were four T20 matches played on that same day which was the beginning of the Twenty20 cup in England. Since then, the frequency of T20 cricket has increased a lot.

The first bowler to take 200 wickets was Dirk Nannes on December 30, 2012 when bowling for Sydney Thunder against Sydney Sixers in KFC Big Bash League. He took 163 innings and 3586 balls to pick up 200 T20 wickets. Since him, 11 others have achieved it including Afridi and Tanvir as mentioned above. The table below lists the 12 bowlers to take 200 wickets in T20s.

200 wickets club in T20s - Chronological order

Bowler

Nationality

Match

Date

Dirk Nannes

Australia

Sydney Thunder v Sydney Sixers

30-Dec-12

Alfonso Thomas

South Africa

Dhaka Gladiators v Chittagong Kings

14-Feb-13

Lasith Malinga

Sri Lanka

Mumbai Indians v Chennai Super Kings

05-May-13

Azhar Mahmood

Pakistan*

Kings XI Punjab v Mumbai Indians

18-May-13

Yasir Arafat

Pakistan

Somerset v Gloucestershire

26-Jul-13

Albie Morkel

South Africa

St Lucia Zouks v Barbados Tridents

08-Aug-13

Saeed Ajmal

Pakistan

Worcestershire v Northamptonshire

30-May-14

Dwayne Bravo

West Indies

Trinidad and Tobago Red Steel v St Lucia Zouks

02-Aug-14

Sunil Narine

West Indies

Guyana Amazon Warriors v St Lucia Zouks

26-Jun-15

Kieron Pollard

West Indies

Barbados Tridents v St Kitts and Nevis Patriots

27-Jun-15

Shahid Afridi

Pakistan

Karachi Blues v Lahore Whites

12-Sep-15

Sohail Tanvir

Pakistan

Rawalpindi v Hyderabad

13-Sep-15

Azhar Mahmood now has the nationality of England.

Among the 12 bowlers, five are Pakistanis, three are West Indians, two South African, a Sri Lankan and an Australian.

Most wickets in T20s by a Bangladeshi is 184 by Shakib al Hasan, by an Englishman is 142 by Graham Napier, by an Indian is 175 by Amit Mishra, by a New Zealander is 141 by Jeetan Patel and by a Zimbabwean is 75 by Elton Chigumbura.

Number of innings to take 200 T20 wickets

The quickest to take 200 wickets in T20 cricket in terms of innings bowled in is Saeed Ajmal, in just 138 innings. The next best is 145 by Lasith Malinga. Kieron Pollard (219) and Albie Morkel (213) bowled in more than 200 innings to pick up 200 T20 wickets. The table below has the details of all the 12 bowlers.

Bowler

Inns

Saeed Ajmal

138

Lasith Malinga

145

Sunil Narine

151

Yasir Arafat

156

Alfonso Thomas

161

Dirk Nannes

163

Shahid Afridi

176

Azhar Mahmood

177

Dwayne Bravo

191

Sohail Tanvir

194

Albie Morkel

213

Kieron Pollard

219

Numbers of balls to take 200 T20 wickets

Saeed Ajmal is also the quickest in terms of number of balls delivered to take 200 T20 wickets. He took his 200th wicket with the 3110th ball of his T20 career. No bowler has done that within 3000 balls. Sohail Tanvir (4113) took more than 4000 balls to take his 200th T20 wicket.

Bowler

Balls

Saeed Ajmal

3110

Yasir Arafat

3183

Lasith Malinga

3217

Kieron Pollard

3447

Alfonso Thomas

3462

Sunil Narine

3513

Dirk Nannes

3586

Dwayne Bravo

3686

Azhar Mahmood

3694

Shahid Afridi

3817-3839*

Albie Morkel

3999

Sohail Tanvir

4113

Kieron Pollard took the most number of innings to get to the milestone but in terms of deliveries bowled he comes fourth.

In case of Shahid Afridi, the ball by ball details are not known for the match in which he took his 200th wicket so the range is mentioned. He had bowled 3816 balls before that match and bowled four overs in the match to pick up two wickets. His first wicket was his 200th of his career. So it is obvious that number of balls should lie between 3817 and 3839.

Time taken to scalp 200 T20 wickets

Bowler

200 T20 wkts

T20 debut

Time from debut

Sunil Narine

26-Jun-15

19-Jan-11

4 years, 5 months, 7 days

Dirk Nannes

30-Dec-12

31-Dec-07

4 years, 11 months, 29 days

Yasir Arafat

26-Jul-13

24-Feb-06

7 years, 5 months, 2 days

Dwayne Bravo

02-Aug-14

16-Feb-06

8 years, 5 months, 17 days

Lasith Malinga

05-May-13

17-Aug-04

8 years, 8 months, 18 days

Alfonso Thomas

14-Feb-13

08-Apr-04

8 years, 10 months, 6 days

Kieron Pollard

27-Jun-15

25-Jul-06

8 years, 11 months, 2 days

Saeed Ajmal

30-May-14

26-Apr-05

9 years, 1 months, 4 days

Albie Morkel

08-Aug-13

08-Apr-04

9 years, 4 months, 0 days

Azhar Mahmood

18-May-13

13-Jun-03

9 years, 11 months, 5 days

Sohail Tanvir

13-Sep-15

25-Apr-05

10 years, 4 months, 19 days

Shahid Afridi

12-Sep-15

02-Jul-04

11 years, 2 months, 10 days

Sunil Narine and Dirk Nannes are the only ones to make it in within five years.

Dirk Nannes completed 200 T20 wickets just one day before the fifth anniversary of his T20 career.

Albie Morkel and Alfonso Thomas made their T20 debuts in the same match for the same team (Lions) which was just the second T20 match in South Africa.

Azhar Mahmood made his debut on the first day when T20 cricket was played – July 13, 2003. As said in the third paragraph, there were four matches played on that day. He played for Surrey against Middlesex.

Who is close to breaking Saeed Ajmal’s record of quickest to 200 T20 wickets in terms of innings and balls?

Kirshmar Santokie has 134 wickets in 77 innings and 1727 balls. He has the best strike rate among bowlers with more than 100 wickets. If he continues this form he should pick up his 200th wicket in 115th innings and in his 2560th ball. If his rate decreases slightly, still he would end up passing Saeed Ajmal.

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