Stats: Captains with Diamond Ducks in International cricket

Though Zimbabwe won in the first ODI of the series against Sri Lanka by chasing down a 300+ total, the team’s skipper Graeme Cremer hasn’t been in great touch individually as he failed to win even one toss in the 3 matches in the series and is on a streak having lost 7 consecutive tosses in ODIs, only one behind Zimbabwe record of 8 by Heath Streak.

In the 3rd ODI match vs Sri Lanka, Cremer had to walk out to the middle in the 49th over of their innings. Sikandar Raza, who was on strike for the last ball of that over pushed the ball down to the bowler Lakshan Sandakan but in the meantime, Cremer, who was looking to give Raza the strike for the final over, was way outside his crease and couldn’t return by the time Sandakan rattled the stumps at his end.

Thus the Zimbabwe captain had to return to the pavilion not only without scoring but went back without facing a single delivery, which a term for it “Diamond Duck” in cricket diction. By bagging the rare duck, Cremer became the first Zimbabwe captain to be dismissed for a diamond duck in International cricket.

In fact, he became only the 5th captain in ODI cricket and 9th in all International formats to bag this rare duck. Among the 9 players, Pakistan’s Misbah-ul-Haq is only one to be handed a diamond duck twice in Internationals as captain. Both of Misbah’s ducks came in ODIs; the last two instances of captains with diamond duck in Internationals before Cremer.

Three captains have bagged a diamond duck in T20I cricket while Rahul Dravid is the only captain to be dismissed in this fashion in Test cricket. The first ever instance of a captain bagging a diamond duck was in an ODI when Sri Lanka’s Arjuna Ranatunga was run out without facing a ball in 1989 against Pakistan.

Diamond Ducks are usually witnessed when a batsman gets run out positioned at the non-striker’s end or when he is stumped on a wide. However, all the 10 instances of captains bagging a diamond duck in International cricket have been by the virtue of runouts when they were a non-striker.

Instances of captains bagging a diamond duck in International cricket:

(Stats as on July 6, 2017)