Meet the misers – the 5 bowlers with the most maiden overs in ODI cricket

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Success in white ball cricket is all about creating pressure. The batting team does this through dominating, run scoring partnerships, while the bowling side does it by limiting scoring opportunities.

The less your opponent scores, the more the pressure builds and in turn the more they are forced to play shots they’re not comfortable playing. In short, wickets don’t take themselves, bowlers need to build pressure and, in an environment where overs are limited, each ball that’s not scored from makes things a little tougher for the team batting.

With that in mind, we ask which bowlers have bowled the most maidens in ODI cricket. It’s very likely that if these bowlers are not amongst the highest wicket-takers of all time, that they have been part of bowling combinations that have been able to dominate.

5. Kapil Dev (India) – 235 maidens from 1867 ODI overs

For so long the paceman at the head of the Indian attack, Kapil Dev was an admired and revered competitor. ODI cricket has evolved plenty since Dev’s time with batsmen significantly more aggressive now than they were in the eighties and early nineties, but that shouldn’t detract from his record.

Often bowling on Asian wickets that didn’t offer too much assistance to the bowlers Dev had an economy rate of 3.71 (second best of the players on the list), an average of 27.45 and a strike rate of 44.2 (the worst on this list).

4. Wasim Akram (Pakistan) – 237 maidens from 3031 ODI overs

At his best Akram was almost unplayable. In the right conditions he could swing the ball prodigiously and he could do it at pace.

With over 500 wickets to his credit Akram spent large parts of his career bowling alongside either Imran Khan or Waqar Younis – also fearsome quicks. Akram ended his ODI career with an average of 23.52 per wicket, an economy rate of 3.89 and a strike rate of 36.2.

Read next: Most Test runs for Australia in Sri Lanka – a list with some surprises

3. Chaminda Vaas (Sri Lanka) – 279 maidens from 2629.1 ODI overs

In a country traditionally known for its spinners, Vaas was the first high-quality seamer to come out of Sri Lanka – there have since been plenty of others, but Vaas was the trailblazer. Like Akram he could swing the ball significantly and was often unplayable.

Like Akram he was also lefthanded. He’s the only bowler to take a hattrick off the first three balls of a match – a feat he achieved against Bangladesh in the 2003 World Cup. Vaas carried a big load opening the bowling for Sri Lanka, but he never seemed to tire, his pace and control always remarkably consistent.

With a best ODI return of eight for 19, Vaas claimed a total of 400 ODI wickets at an average of 27.53. At 4.18 his economy rate is the highest of all the bowlers on the list, but it must be remembered that he was playing on unhelpful Asian wickets a lot of the time.

2. Glenn McGrath (Australia) – 279 maidens from 2161.4 ODI overs

A simply phenomenal bowler, McGrath was quick and accurate. While he bowled the same number of maidens as Vaas he did so in fewer matches and with a better economy rate.

While Vaas was shouldering a huge load at the head of the Sri Lankan attack, McGrath was part of bowling units that were simply relentless. It is probably fair to say that McGrath got to bowl at significantly more new batsmen than Vaas did. With a career that lasted from 1993 to 2007 McGrath was the go-to bowler when Australia were at their ODI peak.

His stats are quite dazzling – averaging more than a maiden a game and with an economy rate of 3.88 (the second best on the list), what stands out with McGrath is not just the volume of maidens he returned but his strike rate (34.0) and bowling average (22.2) – both the best by any player on this list.

1. Shaun Pollock (South Africa) – 313 maidens from 2618.4 ODI overs

A player who probably doesn’t get the credit he deserves; Pollock is often glossed over when people talk about the great South Africa quicks. They talk about Allan Donald, Dale Steyn, Kagiso Rabada and Makhaya Ntini, with Pollock often glossed over.

It’s true that he lost considerable pace as his career wore on, but he never lost his accuracy or his uncanny ability to generate bounce.

Pollock was also a captain and a very useful batsman, he really was the complete cricketer, and it is no surprise to find him at the top of this list with 313 maidens bowled – like McGrath, also at a rate of more than one per game.

Pollock’s economy rate is also the best of any player on this list at an exceptional 3.67 per over. That number isn’t the best ever, but it puts him in exalted company of players like Curtley Ambrose and Joel Garner from West Indies and Richard Hadlee from New Zealand.

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