Five-wicket haul or fifer is the terminology used to indicate a player claiming five wickets in an innings, be it in the Test match or the shorter versions of the game. Claiming five wickets in an innings is no mean thing and if it is a feat performed against world-class teams, it is all the better. Only a few bowlers in history have managed to pick five-wicket haul on ODI debut.
Playing international cricket is itself a daunting task. Along with it comes a lot of expectations and pressures. Cricketers, who manage to cope up with it finally taste success in their career. Taking a five-wicket haul is equivalent to scoring a century. Well, the bowler would be ‘on the moon’ if he is able to put up such a performance on his debut.
Let us take a look at the top 5 bowlers to pick five-wicket haul on ODI debut:
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1. Kagiso Rabada, South Africa on 10th July 2015
The 20-year-old Kagiso Rabada made his debut for South Africa in the first match of the three-match during the 2015 series against Bangladesh. The match took place on 10th July 2015, at Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium, Mirpur.
Winning the toss, the hosts chose to bat. They could put up only 160 runs in 36.3 overs with the all-rounder, Shakib-Al Hasan, notching up 48 runs off 51 deliveries with the help of 5 fours. Kagiso Rabada finished with the figure of 8-3-16-6 with the economy rate of 2.0 and that included a hat-trick.
He accounted for Tamim Iqbal, Soumya Sarkar, Liton Das, Mahmudullah Riyad, Mashrafe Mortaza and Jobair Hossain. Tamim Iqbal, Litton Das and Mahmudullah Riyad were the trios who formed the hat-trick scalps reducing Bangladesh to 17 runs for the loss of three wickets in the fourth over.
The visitors romped home scoring 164 runs for the loss of two wickets with Faf du Plessis knocking an unbeaten 63 runs off 75 deliveries with 7 fours. Kagiso Rabada also won the player of the match award for his spectacular performance.
