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Sophie Ecclestone’s run of consecutive international innings with a wicket ended on Thursday night at 34 – one short of a pair of cricket’s all-time greats.
Sri Lanka spinner Muttiah Muralitharan, the record Test wicket-taker, and Australia paceman Dennis Lillee both enjoyed runs of 35 during their illustrious careers.
The longest sequence was achieved by former India spinner Bishan Bedi and here, the PA news agency looks at the top five and how Ecclestone compares.
46 – Bishan Bedi, 1971-77
The left-armer began his run with four for 70 at Lord’s in July 1971, with England providing his only opposition for the first three years in 11 Tests (19 innings) and his 1974 one-day international debut before a Test series against the West Indies.
He took 114 wickets at an average of 26.75 in 42 Test innings and five at 25.20 in four ODIs before the run ended when he bowled only 10 balls in the second innings as England chased just 16 at Eden Gardens in January 1977.
43 – Sandeep Lamichhane, 2020-22
The other outlier at the top of the list is a Nepal leg-spinner who compiled his run against associate opposition, though a record of 52 wickets at 13.77 in 20 ODIs and 50 at 11.04 in 23 T20s is not to be sniffed at.
It was ended by Kenya in a T20 in Nairobi in August 2022. In ODIs he added another 13 before being taken for 77 in 10 wicketless overs against Zimbabwe.
35 – Muttiah Muralitharan, 2001-02
Sri Lanka’s spin king emphasised his class by piling up similar figures to Lamichhane while facing the likes of India, Pakistan and the West Indies.
Starting in a pair of ODIs against India in August 2001, he took 29 wickets at 11.07 in 13 games in that format and 95 at 15.92 in 22 Test innings. Remarkable ODI figures of five for nine in 10 overs against New Zealand in April 2002 proved the final flourish in his wicket-taking run before an analysis of nought for 29 against Pakistan three days later.
35 – Dennis Lillee, 1975-79
After wickets in three successive ODIs against the West Indies and England, Lillee took 21 scalps at 21.90 in the 1975 Ashes – including five for 15 at Edgbaston – and maintained his form against the Windies, Pakistan and New Zealand.
He took 99 wickets at 23.16 in a run of 30 Test innings up to December 1979, when – similarly to Bedi – he bowled only two overs in the Windies’ second innings in Brisbane. Six wickets at 33.50 in five ODIs provided the rest of his run.
34 – Sophie Ecclestone, 2023-24
The ICC’s current top-ranked female bowler in both ODIs and T20 internationals had taken a wicket in every innings across all three formats since February of last year when, in her first England outing since a wicketless T20 against the Windies, she took three for 23 against the same opposition in the T20 World Cup.
That was the first of 20 straight successful innings in that format, yielding 40 wickets at 10.55, until her four wicketless overs at Lord’s on Thursday went for 30 runs. Along the way she took 21 wickets at 14.48 in 10 ODIs and 15 at 23.93 in last year’s Tests against Australia and India to set a women’s world record.
