Shoaib Akhtar is a name that every Cricket fan in the world knows and they know it because he is the legitimate Fastest bowler of all time and everyone loved watching him bowl those fast falls which sometimes bounced the batter out or sometimes a toe crushing yorker. Shoaib Akhtar was one of the best cricketers to play for Pakistan and we will talk all about his records below.
Shoaib Akhtar started playing international cricket from 1997-2011 and in those 14 years at the top he bowled the fastest delivery ever recorded at 160.1 km/h and no one has been able to break that yet. He has played 46 Test matches and has taken 178 Test wickets in his career at an average of 25.70 with 12 Five wicket hauls and 2 times 10 wickets in an innings. In ODIs he played 163 ODI matches for Pakistan and took 247 wickets at a very good average of 24.98 with 4 Five wicket hauls in ODIs. Let’s look at the Top 5 Best bowling performances of Shoaib Akhtar.
6/11 vs New Zealand (2002)
The best bowling performance in the incredible career of Shoaib Akhtar cane in this test match against New Zealand where while batting first Pakistan made 643 runs and while replying Shoaib took wickets regularly and did not allow the New Zealand batters to get any kind of rhythm and they were only bowled out for 73 with Shoaib Akhtar taking 6 wickets for only a paltry 11 runs . It was one of the most extraordinary spells of bowling.
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5/46 and 6/30 vs New Zealand (2003)
Shoaib Akhtar loved bowling against New Zealand and this time he thrashed them in their own backyard at Wellington by picking 5 wicket hauls In both the Innings of the test match. In the first innings of this match New Zealand battled first and they made 366 runs and Shoaib Akhtar took 5 wickets in this Innings for just 46 runs whereas the other Bowlers were going for a lot of runs. And more impressive was his performance in the second bowling innings when Pakistan needed it most then he destroyed New Zealand and got 6 wickets for only 30 runs and New Zealand were Bowled out for 103 thus allowing Pakistan to win the match.
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6/50 and 4/30 vs Bangladesh (2003)
Another outstanding 10 wicket haul performance by Shoaib Akhtar is featured on our list and this time the opponents were Bangladesh.Batting first Bangladesh were unable to score lots of runs as Akthar picked up wickets at crucial times and Bangladesh could make 361 and Shoaib took almost 23 overs to get these 6 wickets. Then in the 3rd innings when Pakistan needed their match winner to step up Shoaib took 4/30 in just 12 overs and bowled out Bangladesh for only 95 and Pakistan chased 165 easily to win.
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5/25 vs Australia (2002)
He was very young in his ODI career and In this match where he bowled one of his best spells in ODI cricket there were Wasim Akram and Waqar Younis in the same bowling attack but it was Shoaib Akhtar who broke the back of the greatest Australian team . Pakistan had made 256 in 50 overs and it was looking easy for Australia but Shoaib Akhtar absolutely decimated the whole batting order and in just 8 overs and giving away only 25 runs he picked 5 wickets and Pakistan won by 91 runs.
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5/54 vs England (2005)
The last bowling performance of Shoaib Akhtar on this list is this devastation of England that he put on in 2005 in front of his home fans. In this ODI match, English were batting first and they lost wickets at the wrong time and it was because of Shoaib who in 8.4 overs while giving away 54 runs took 5 wickets and restricted England to 230 runs and Pakistan was able to chase it down.
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