By Rex Clementine, IANS,
Colombo : Sri Lanka’s Chaminda Vaas became the fourth bowler to claim 400 wickets in One-day Internationals during the fourth ODI against India here Wednesday at the R. Premadasa Stadium.
Vaas reached the landmark in his seventh over of the innings when Yuvraj Singh whipped one in the air too early and was snapped up by captain Mahela Jayawardene at short mid wicket for a duck. He reached the landmark after Pakistan’s Wasim Akram, Waqar Younis and team-mate Muttiah Muralitharan.
Vaas started the series requiring two wickets to claim 400 victims and had to wait for three matches. He picked up just a solitary wicket in the first ODI in Dambulla taking his victims to 399, but missed the next game due to a hamstring injury. Coming back to play the third ODI in Colombo, he went wicket-less after bowling his quota of 10 overs off one straight spell Sunday.
“It’s been a long journey for me. I remember my debut against India, not one of those prominent cricket centres in that country, but a little known place called Rajkot. I had just turned 20 and Arjuna gave me the ball ahead of others. My first wicket was Navjot Siddhu, that was after he had cracked a hundred,” Vaas said.
“Since my debut, with the grace of God, I have gone on to play at all major cricket venues of the world whether it be Lord’s in England, Eden Gardens at Calcutta or MCG in Australia. It’s been an absolute pleasure to represent my country for such a long time,” he added.
Vaas claimed a world record eight for 19 in 2002 against Zimbabwe and the figures are still the best by a bowler in ODIs.
Only Vaas and Akram have claimed two hat-tricks in ODIs and one of those is a unique one as he picked up three wickets in the first three balls of the game during the ICC World Cup in South Africa against Bangladesh in 2001.
Highest wicket takers in World in ODIs (before Wednesday’s match)
Player Mat Wkts BBI Ave 5s
1. Wasim Akram (Pak) 356 502 5/15 23.52 6
2. M. Muralitharan (SL) 313 478 7/30 22.95 9
3. Waqar Younis (Pak) 262 416 7/36 23.84 13
4. Chaminda Vaas (SL) 321 399 8/19 27.50 4
5. Shaun Pollock (SA) 303 393 6/35 24.50 5
6. Glenn McGrath (Aus) 250 381 7/15 22.02 7
7. Anil Kumble (India) 271 337 6/12 30.89 2
8. Javagal Srinath (India) 229 315 5/23 28.08 3
9. Sanath Jayasuriya (SL) 419 310 6/29 36.46 4
10. Brett Lee (Aus) 173 303 5/22 22.95 8.