Top 10: Most Dot Balls Bowled by a Bowler in ODI Cricket

In limited-overs cricket, dot balls are hailed as gold dust for the simple reason that they create frustration in the batter’s mind, ultimately leading to a dismissal. But the career graph of a bowler is always judged upon the number of wickets taken and not what circumstances have led him/her to take a chunk of wickets.

Yes, we are talking about the impact of a cluster of dot balls bowled by a bowler in a game. The pressure surrounding the dots can lead to either him or the other bowlers taking wickets.

So here in this piece, we will talk about the top 10 bowlers with the most number of dot deliveries in ODI cricket.

Most Dot Balls Bowled in ODIs

(Note: The stats are based on matches where ball-by-ball data is available.)

Key Insights

Shahid Afridi has bowled the most number of dot balls in ODI cricket. 7022 were dot balls out of the 13634 balls he delivered. Afridi took 325 wickets in this period.

Brett Lee with 368 scalps and Malinga with 338 are the only bowlers with more wickets than Shahid Afridi in ODI cricket in this period.

Shakib Al Hasan holds the record for bowling the joint-most number of dots in an ODI innings. He, along with Curtly Ambrose of the West Indies and Sunil Joshi of India, bowled 55 balls without conceding any runs in a single innings, respectively.

Apart from these 10 amazing bowlers, Chaminda Vaas (5711), Zaheer Khan (5570), Glenn McGrath (5236), and Kyle Mills (5035) have sent over 5000 dots in ODI cricket.