Australian cricketing great and one of the best bowlers the world has seen, Shane Warne breathed his last on Friday in Thailand, aged 52. In a career that began in 1992 and stretched all the way till 2007 internationally, and six more years after that playing T20 franchise cricket, Warne made plenty of records his own.
In his pomp, Warne was unplayable and even the best, like Sachin Tendulkar and Brian Lara, have had their fair share of troubles with the blond-haired magician. Considered to be one of the finest cricketers to have ever worn the baggy green of Australia, he finished as the country’s highest wicket-taker in Test cricket, and is only second to Sri Lanka’s Muttiah Muralitharan. He played 145 Tests – only Steve Waugh, Ricky Ponting (both 168) and Allan Border (156) – donned the Baggy Green Cap more often, and Warne also represented his country in 194 one-day internationals.
He was named one of Wisden’s Five Cricketers of the 20th Century, alongside Sir Donald Bradman, Sir Garfield Sobers and Sir Vivian Richards, and Sir Jack Hobbs.
Here’s a look at the statistics that tell a story about one of the cricket’s most loved.
1,001 – He and Muttiah Muralitharan are the only two bowlers to have bagged more than 1,000 wickets in their international careers.
708 - Number of wickets taken by Warne in Tests. He was the first bowler to breach the milestone of 600 wickets and 700 wickets as well.
293 - The number of wickets Warne took during his ODI career.
195 - Ashes wickets, the most in the competition’s history and 38 more than second-placed Glenn McGrath. In fact, no bowler has taken more wickets against one team in Tests.
102 - The number of times Warne has dismissed batters for a duck.
99 - Warne’s best Test score as a batter. He has the most Test runs of any batsman not to make a century. Warne finished with 3,154 runs in Test cricket.
96 - The number of wickets taken by Warne in a calendar year (2005) the most by any bowler in history. He picked 40 of those wickets in the Ashes. The closest to him is Muralitharan with 90 wickets in 2006.
37 – Warne finished his Test career with 37 five-wicket hauls, again second only to his Sri Lankan friend Muralitharan, who had 67 of them.
3 - The number of Test hat-tricks taken by Warne
450,000 - Warne’s price (in USD) at the IPL auction in 2008, when he was bought by Rajasthan Royals. He spent four seasons there as both captain and coach and led them to victory in the first season of the competition.