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We have heard that Dennis Lillee was a great fast bowler – but how great?
Lillee was the first bowler to take 350 Test wickets. At the time of retirement he (355) was 46 wickets clear of anyone and 107 ahead of any other Australian.
But it gets better.
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Lillee was the first bowler to take 350 Test wickets. At the time of retirement he (355) was 46 wickets clear of anyone and 107 ahead of any other Australian.
But it gets better.
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Lillee missed Test cricket between March 1977 and November 1979 to play World Series Cricket, where the quality of contests was at least as good (superior to, actually) as contemporary Test cricket.
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Lillee picked up 67 wickets from these matches. These were the most in World Series Cricket, by the way. Andy Roberts (50) was next.
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Lillee also played four unofficial Tests against a very strong Rest of the World XI. He took 24 wickets from these. Unlike in 2005-06, this was a full-fledged tour with five "Tests", three "ODIs", and nine other matches.
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Combine these numbers, and the tally goes up to 446 – an incredible number even in an era when every now and then someone seems to reach the 300-wicket mark.
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*Among fast bowlers* Lillee remains the joint quickest to 200 wickets (38 Tests) and quickest to 250 (48) and 300 (56). Hadlee and Steyn beat him to 350.
More than half of Lillee's wickets (195 out of 355) came in the Ashes. He is 38 clear of McGrath, the next man on the list.
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More than half of Lillee's wickets (195 out of 355) came in the Ashes. He is 38 clear of McGrath, the next man on the list.
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Lillee had 103 ODI wickets. When he retired he had the most wickets in the world. When he retired, nobody else had more than 85. At that point he also had the most Test wickets in history.
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Lillee's ODI numbers are not talked about as often. Put a 100-wicket cut-off, and his bowling average (20.82) is third on the all-time list, after Rashid Khan (18.54 – may change over time) and Joel Garner (18.84).
