Brett Lee’s International career in numbers

Regarded as one of the quickest bowlers in the cricket history, Brett Lee made a full account of his pace and talent by ending his career as one of the most successful bowlers in Australian history. Lee played a crucial part in Australia’s golden era serving them for more than a decade between 1999 and 2012. He possessed all the variations a fast bowler dreams of and a pace that even touched 160 kmph at times making it tough for the greats of the game to tackle him.

On occasion of Brett Lee’s 41st birthday, we look at the numbers that matter most from his career.

1 – He was the first ever player to take a hat-trick in Twenty20 Internationals. He recorded it against Bangladesh in the 2007 WT20 game.

1 – He is the only Australian to take a hat-trick in the ODI World Cup till date. He took a hat-trick against Kenya in the 2003 CWC which is one of the six hat-tricks recorded for Australia in ODI cricket so far.

3 – Number of times Lee has done the double of fifty and 5-fer in a Test match. These are the joint most times for an Australia in this format. Among Australians, Richie Benaud, Keith Miller and Hugh Trumble also done this double on three different occasions.

9 – Number of 5-wicket hauls he has to his name in ODI cricket. These are the joint 3rd most behind Waqar Younis and Muttiah Muralitharan. Shahid Afridi also picked up nine 5-fers in ODIs. Lee’s 23 four-wicket hauls are also the joint 3rd most for any player.

14 – Number of times Brett Lee dismissed Sachin Tendulkar in International cricket. These are the most number of times any player has dismissed Sachin. He got master blaster’s wicket on five occasions in Tests and nine times in ODI cricket.

17.97 – His bowling average of 17.97 and strike rate of 23.5 are the best for any player in the World Cup history. (Min: 35 wickets) He has picked up 35 wickets in 17 matches with two 4-fers and a 5-fer.

50 – Number of wickets the pacer picked up in ODI tournament finals. He is one of the two bowlers with 50 wickets in ODI finals. Glenn McGrath has picked up 55 wickets in finals of ODI tournaments.

55 – Matches Lee needed to complete 100 wickets in ODI cricket. He is the 4th quickest to reach the milestone. He is the 2nd quickest to 150 wickets (82 games), 200 wickets (112 games), 250 wickets (139 games) after Saqlain Mushtaq and the fastest to 300 wickets (171 games) and 350 wickets (202 games) in this format.

310 – Number of wickets he picked up in Test cricket. He is one of the five Australian players to take over 300 wickets in the Test format.

310 – Lee’s 310 Test wickets are the 2nd most for any player without ever taking 10-wicket match haul. England’s Bob Wills picked up 325 wickets without a 10-wicket match haul.

380 – Number of wickets he picked up in ODI cricket. These are the joint most wickets for any player in this format for Australia. McGrath picked up 381 wickets in ODIs with one of them for ICC World XI.

718 – His 718 wickets in International cricket are the 3rd most by any Australia after Shane Warne and Glenn McGrath.