The Golden Arms – Top five part-time bowlers in ODIs

In recent times, the part-time bowlers are slowly getting extinct as the top-order players concentrating on managing the workload. Hence, the teams are forced to run behind all-rounders especially in the limited-overs formats. In the past decades, the teams were blessed with most of their batsmen being capable of chipping in a couple of overs. Some of the top batsmen rolled their arms and found success regularly. Let us take a look at five of the most effective part-time bowlers in ODI cricket.

5. Darren Lehmann:

Darren Lehmann represented Australia in the ODI format between 1996 and 2005. It was the period where Australia dominated the format with two World Cup victories and completed a hat-trick in 2007. With the regular bowlers doing their job effectively, Lehmann’s left-arm spin wasn’t needed for the Aussies regularly. Hence, he bowled in only 62 out of the 117 matches he played in ODI cricket. Lehmann returned with 52 wickets in those at an impressive average of 27.78 which is decent for a specialist bowler itself.

4. Michael Clarke:

World Cup-winning Australian captain, Michael Clarke, showed his ability with the ball in his debut Test series where he claimed a 6-wicket haul with his left-arm spin. His bowling wasn’t needed regularly in the longer format on the Australian pitches but often bowled with the old ball in ODI cricket. Clarke bowled in 106 ODI matches out of the 245 he played where he ended with 57 wickets at an average of 37. Clarke seldom bowled in this format post the 2011 World Cup once he became the captain.

3. Aamer Sohail:

Aamer Sohail’s knocks with the bat would come to anyone’s mind while talking about his career. The opening batsman served Pakistan in over 200 International matches during the 1990s. However, the left-hander played a key role with the ball, especially in the ODI format. Bowling left-arm orthodox, Sohail bagged 85 wickets from 156 matches with help of a 4-wicket haul but at a high average of 43.56. He bowled over 800 overs across the 125 ODI innings in which he rolled his arm.

2. Virender Sehwag:

Virender Sehwag first came into the team as a bowling all-rounder but his attacking insists were backed by Sourav Ganguly. The then Indian skipper pushed Sehwag up the order but knew how to use his bowling talent effectively. Sehwag was used to bowl at the death with the old ball under Ganguly which fetched results on slow tracks. Even MS Dhoni made most of Sehwag’s off-spin later on especially in the matches played in sub-continent. Sehwag ended his 251-match ODI career with 96 wickets to his name.

1. Sachin Tendulkar:

The impact Sachin Tendulkar created in World Cricket with the bat has surely made his bowling get a limited appraisal. The Mumbaikar had the ability to deliver six different kinds of balls in an over. Tendulkar bowled in 270 ODIs of the 463 matches he played where he bagged as many as 151 wickets. Sachin registered two 5-wicket hauls and both of them came in Kochi only. Tendulkar also has a unique bowling record to his name for successfully defending six or fewer runs on two different instances.