We dissect ducks

This week in our new stats series Did You Know? where we present well known and lesser-known facts on a theme, we look at records and trivia related to ducks in international cricket.

59 International ducks by Muttiah Muralitharan, the most among players across the three formats. Courtney Walsh has the most ducks in Tests (43) while Murali's former team-mate Sanath Jayasuriya leads the list in ODIs (34). In T20Is, three batsmen are tied on ten each: Tillakaratne Dilshan, Umar Akmal and Kevin O'Brien.

22 Ducks made by Marvan Atapattu and Steve Waugh in their Test careers, the most among front-line batsmen. Atapattu began his Test career with five ducks in his first six innings. (He scored one run in the other innings.) Despite such a horrific start, he finished his career with 16 hundreds, including six doubles, and an average of 39.02.

53 Number of players who got a pair on Test debut - 44 in men's Tests and nine in women's. The most prominent among them is Graham Gooch, who went on to have an outstanding career, scoring 8900 runs in 118 Tests and making 20 hundreds. Among current batsmen, Dean Elgar made a pair on his debut, in Perth in 2012-13, and currently has 3888 runs with 12 hundreds. Overall, Chris Martin got seven pairs in his Test career, three more than any other player.

20 The most ducks in women's international cricket, a record jointly held by Jhulan Goswami, Deandra Dottin, and Lucy Pearson. Pearson has the most ducks in women's Tests (6), Goswami the most in ODIs (17), and Danni Wyatt the most in T20Is (12).

77 The most most balls faced in a Test duck. New Zealand's Geoff Allott batted 101 minutes and was eventually out without scoring, against South Africa in Auckland in 1998-99. In ODIs, West Indies' Runako Morton holds this dubious record for a 31-ball duck, against Australia in Kuala Lumpur in 2006.

5 The most consecutive ducks in Tests is a record shared by three players: Bob Holland, Ajit Agarkar and Mohammad Asif. Agarkar's five came in Australia in the same series, in 1999-2000. After this sequence, Agarkar got a pair in his next Test against Australia as well, making it seven ducks in a row against Australia, including four first-ball zeroes in a row. Mervyn Dillon and Nuwan Pradeep had two different streaks of four consecutive ducks in their Test careers.

120 Number of consecutive ODI innings in which Rahul Dravid batted without getting out for a duck, between 1999 and 2004 - the longest sequence for a batsman in the format. Martin Crowe played 119 consecutive innings without a duck. Kepler Wessels is the only batsman to have played over 100 innings in his ODI career without ever getting out for a duck. Among the current players, three have an ongoing streak of more than 70 innings without a duck: Sikandar Raza (83), Sarfaraz Ahmed (77) and David Warner (75). In Tests, David Gower is the only batsman to play over 100 consecutive innings without a duck - 119 innings between 1982 and 1990. In women's ODIs, Karen Rolton played 104 consecutive innings without a duck. In T20Is, MS Dhoni has the most consecutive innings without a duck (84) among men and Amy Satterthwaite among women (80); both are ongoing streaks.

108 International innings played by Faf du Plessis across formats before getting his first duck, which is the most for a player. In Tests, AB de Villiers batted in 78 innings before his first duck, while in ODIs, the record is held by Kumar Dharmasena, who played 72 innings before his first duck. James Anderson played 54 Test innings before his first duck, but then got 26 ducks in his next 158 innings.

1 Instance of both captains getting out for golden ducks in an ODI, which happened recently when Virat Kohli and Kieron Pollard were out first ball in Visakhapatnam. In December 2018, in the Centurion Test, the opposing captains - du Plessis and Sarfaraz - were dismissed for ducks in both innings of the match, the only such instance in a Test.

104 Number of times Glenn McGrath dismissed batsmen for ducks in Test cricket, the most by a bowler. In ODIs, Wasim Akram holds the record (110). Courtney Walsh dismissed Ian Healy for a duck five times in Tests, the most by a bowler against a batsman. In ODIs, Chaminda Vaas got Herschelle Gibbs and Stephen Fleming for ducks four times each.

1 McGrath and Chadwick Walton are the only players to get out for first-ball ducks in their debut Test innings as well as their debut ODI innings. Apart from McGrath, three other players have played 100-plus ODIs after being out first ball in their debut innings: Dhoni, Suresh Raina and Shoaib Malik. Meanwhile, Sachin Tendulkar and Kane Williamson are the most successful ODI batsmen among the 24 players who began their careers with two or more ducks in a row.

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