Mick Lewis nearly lost a world record to Sajid Mahmood when England played Sri Lanka in the second ODI at the Kennington Oval in London. It was one he'd have been happy to lose. Having conceded 80 runs at 11.42 an over, Mahmood was well on course to break Lewis' embarrassing 113 runs in ten overs. Fortunately for Mahmood, Andrew Strauss decided to end the punishment after seven overs and Lewis' record for most runs in a ten-over spell stood intact. This week, we look at bowlers with the most expensive figures in ODIs and Tests.
Before Brett Lee's coming of age in Glenn McGrath's absence over the past year, he copped a hammering more times than he would have liked. In fact, Lee is the only bowler to appear in the Test, ODI and Twenty20 table of worst economy rates. He conceded 31 in three overs in the Twenty20 at the Rose Bowl in July 2005 and, a couple of months later, got creamed for 111 in 17 overs in the second Test against England at Edgbaston. In December 2005, Lou Vincent and Brendon McCullum hammered him for 85 in ten overs in the second of the Chappell-Hadlee trophy matches. A couple of other matches, when Lee conceded 85 in ten overs against Pakistan in 2001 and 83 in ten against India at the Gabba also make it to the top 20 most expensive figures in ODIs.
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Javagal Srinath chose the most important match of his one-day career to collect his worst figures. Courtesy Ricky Ponting and Damien Martyn, Srinath leaked 87 in ten overs as Australia piled up 359 for 2 in the 2003 World Cup final. Srinath did not play another match.Muttiah Muralitharan's 0 for 99 - the second worst figures for a ten-over spell in ODIs - was only the sixth time he conceded more than six an over in a 275-match career.
TheJohannesburg boundary-mela has three entries in the lists of most expensive economy-rates - Jacques Kallis' 70 in six overs, Roger Telemachus' 87 in ten, and Lewis' 113 in ten. But considering that 872 runs were scored in 99.5 overs, you might have expected more.
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Bob Willis, whose 3.28 per over is the fourth lowest career economy-rate in ODIs, has the third most expensive figures in Tests for a minimum qualification of 90 balls in an innings. Willis, in his last Test, conceded 123 runs in 18 overs as Michael Holding got stuck into him during his innings of 59 that included five sixes. Willis' career as a bowler ended on a low note but two not-outs in the Test ensured that he finished with a world-record 55 not-out innings.Click here for more Test tables.
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