The ODI Bowler’s Ranking 2008 is out! in the third edition of Vineet’s Cricket Rankings (Check out the ODI Bowler Rankings 2007 here)! And there are lots of surprises here, in fact, like the batting Top 30, the bowling Top 30 almost got entirely revamped with a lot of new bowlers coming in. The biggest setback was that the Sri Lankan bowlers ho took the maximum of 5 positions in Top 30 last year have only 3 bowlers there and except for Muralitharan no one could retain their place in Top 30. Australia, Pakistan and South Africa have 4 bowlers each in the list, but with most of them being new. And surprisingly New Zealand topped with 5 bowlers making the grade. And that is incredible since Shane Bond went out of the team, having participated in the ICL. Well then who are they? Well, Gillespie (not the australian), Southee, Oram, Vettori and Kyle Mills made New Zealand a bowling prowess.
At the top of the heap is new face Ajantha Mendis, who captured 48 wickets in the just 18 matches he played at 10.12 apiece. And he spent a miserly 3.58 runs per over to land right on top. He emerged out of nowhere in 2007 to be at the top in 2008. That’s really an awesome talent to watch out for.
Mupariwa of Zimbabwe came a surprise second taking 14 wickets in 6 matches at 13.0 apiece. And he spent a miserly 3.95 runs per over to land right on top at the second place.
Shaun Pollock took his last bow at No. 3 claiming 6 wickets in 5 matches at 21.83 apiece at a very miserly economy rate of 2.78 rpo. Zaheer Khan made the cut at No. 4 (and last year no Indian was in the list!!) claiming 17 wickets in 10 matches at 19.52 runs per wicket and an economy rate of 3.84.
Where are the Indians? Well PP Ojha just sneaked in at No. 30. With Munaf Patel (No. 31) and Praveen Kumar (No. 33) snapping at his heels. Way to go! What about Harbhajan, Peyush Chawla, Ishant, Sreesanth, RP Singh and Irfan Pathan? Well how about Nos 41, 47, 51, 68, 72, 76 respectively? Well, even Yuvraj was a competitive 75 then. Well, so we all know where India needs to improve much more than just plain breast beating!
| No | Name | Team | Mat | W | Ave | Econ | VRK |
| 1 | BAW Mendis (SL) | Sri Lanka | 18 | 48 | 10.12 | 3.58 | 64.20 |
| 2 | T Mupariwa (Zim) | Zimbabwe | 6 | 14 | 13 | 3.95 | 55.50 |
| 3 | SM Pollock (SA) | South Africa | 5 | 6 | 21.83 | 2.78 | 50.20 |
| 4 | Z Khan (India) | India | 10 | 17 | 19.52 | 3.84 | 47.10 |
| 5 | SR Clark (Aus) | Australia | 8 | 11 | 18.18 | 3.44 | 46.23 |
| 6 | NW Bracken (Aus) | Australia | 18 | 31 | 18.16 | 3.97 | 46.13 |
| 7 | CK Langeveldt (SA) | South Africa | 6 | 12 | 20.25 | 4.64 | 43.60 |
| 8 | MR Gillespie (NZ) | New Zealand | 6 | 8 | 22.87 | 3.73 | 42.70 |
| 9 | M Muralitharan (SL) | Sri Lanka | 21 | 35 | 22.08 | 4.24 | 42.60 |
| 10 | TG Southee (NZ) | New Zealand | 11 | 20 | 20.9 | 4.66 | 40.67 |
| 11 | MG Johnson (Aus) | Australia | 17 | 25 | 21.6 | 4.15 | 40.56 |
| 12 | J Botha (SA) | South Africa | 15 | 19 | 22.31 | 3.86 | 40.40 |
| 13 | KMDN Kulasekara (SL) | Sri Lanka | 21 | 33 | 20.87 | 4.32 | 40.37 |
| 14 | RDM Leverock (Ber) | Bermuda | 5 | 3 | 44.33 | 2.89 | 40.10 |
| 15 | Wahab Riaz (Pak) | Pakistan | 5 | 10 | 20.2 | 5.02 | 39.80 |
| 16 | Umar Gul (Pak) | Pakistan | 12 | 24 | 19.79 | 5.09 | 39.10 |
| 17 | JDP Oram (NZ) | New Zealand | 13 | 11 | 28 | 3.38 | 38.89 |
| 18 | DL Vettori (NZ) | New Zealand | 16 | 17 | 27.94 | 3.72 | 38.74 |
| 19 | S Dhaniram (Can) | Canada | 6 | 8 | 24.37 | 4.14 | 38.60 |
| 20 | A Flintoff (Eng) | England | 11 | 17 | 21.17 | 4.46 | 38.58 |
| 21 | B Lee (Aus) | Australia | 13 | 23 | 24.34 | 4.84 | 38.14 |
| 22 | Sohail Tanvir (Pak) | Pakistan | 19 | 32 | 23.87 | 4.74 | 37.86 |
| 23 | NO Miller (WI) | West Indies | 8 | 10 | 28.9 | 4.12 | 37.55 |
| 24 | JE Taylor (WI) | West Indies | 15 | 22 | 25.63 | 4.5 | 37.00 |
| 25 | Shahid Afridi (Pak) | Pakistan | 19 | 30 | 28.36 | 4.67 | 36.98 |
| 26 | KD Mills (NZ) | New Zealand | 14 | 20 | 26.3 | 4.5 | 36.43 |
| 27 | RW Price (Zim) | Zimbabwe | 12 | 9 | 38.77 | 3.49 | 36.35 |
| 28 | A Nel (SA) | South Africa | 9 | 11 | 21.45 | 4.3 | 35.33 |
| 29 | Shakib Al Hasan (Ban) | Bangladesh | 19 | 22 | 33.45 | 4.23 | 35.07 |
| 30 | PP Ojha (India) | India | 5 | 5 | 34.6 | 4.02 | 34.80 |
Where are the 2007 Top Bowlers?
Only Muralitharan slipped a little from No. 3 to No. 9. All others crashed out of the list, except for maybe Shane Bond, who was done in by the BCCI.
81 FH Edwards (WI) (1)
61
RJ Sidebottom (Eng) (2)
9
M Muralitharan (SL) (3)
#
SE Bond (NZ) (4) – he was dropped for playing in the ICL
52 PJ Ongondo (Afr/Kenya) (5)
*These rankings are based on Players who’ve played 5 matches or more. These rankings are prepared solely by myself based on owned algorithms. These have no relation with ICC or any other rankings calculated elsewhere in the world.
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