Will Blessing Muzarabani overtake Heath Streak as Zimbabwe’s top wicket-taker in Tests? The stats show it’s just a matter of time
Zimbabwe has never been one of those countries that produces superstar bowlers.
However, what they have done better than most countries is generate pacers and spinners who continually nag at a good length until they get results for their team.
Below, we highlight Zimbabwe’s highest wicket-takers in Test cricket.
9. Guy Whittall – 51 Test wickets for Zimbabwe
Whittall did not bowl much, but when he did, he got results for Zimbabwe. He made up for his lack of lethal pace with good control and moving the ball in the air and off the surface. The combination made him an economical bowler with a knack for taking important wickets.
Whittall produced his best performance in December 1996, when he bagged his second of three four-wicket hauls against England. He took 4/18 as he helped his side clinch a draw. He finished his nine-year Test career with 51 wickets in 52 innings.
8. Andy Blignaut – 53 Test wickets for Zimbabwe
Zimbabwe has had numerous players whose international careers came to an end before they reached their peak. Andy Blignaut is one such player. He spent a tumultuous time under the employment of Zimbabwe Cricket. His on-field performances were hampered by perpetual disputes between players and administrators over numerous issues that included payments.
The batting all-rounder debuted in 2001 and left the international arena in 2005. In that period, he took 53 wickets in 30 innings. He bagged three five-wicket hauls and produced his best bowling innings in his maiden Test appearance, bagging 5/73 against Bangladesh.
His final Test was Zimbabwe’s last for the next six years. Things had gotten so bad that the country couldn’t sustain first-class cricket.
Andy Blignaut finished his career with 53 wickets in 30 innings, 53 wickets.
7. Blessing Muzarabani – 54 Test wickets for Zimbabwe
Muzarabani is arguably Zimbabwe’s all-time best pacer. The 28-year-old was given his first big break by former Zimbabwe captain Tatenda Taibu, who signed him to his Rising Stars club and took him on a five-match tour to the UK in 2017. Muzarabani impressed so much that it wasn’t long before he was drafted into the national team.
Muzarabani took a break from international cricket when he signed a Kolpak contract with Nottinghamshire. His stay with the county was cut short by Brexit. When he returned to Zimbabwe, he picked up from where he had left off, almost single-handedly carrying the Zimbabwe bowling attack on his back.
His average of 23.27 is the best of any Zimbabwean bowler with 10 or more Test wickets. He has taken 54 wickets in 20 innings, with three five-wicket hauls to his name.
6. Bryan Strang – 56 Test wickets for Zimbabwe
According to legend, Strang was once called the most boring bowler who grew frustrated by the left-arm medium pacer’s deliveries. Strang stuck to a line on off-stump with his military medium pacers.
Strang produced his best performance with the ball when he bagged 5/101 against South Africa in October 1995. That was his one and only five-wicket haul in Test cricket. Strang did not have a long international career because of his frequent clashes with administrators, who then barred him from representing Zimbabwe on political grounds.
He took 56 wickets in 44 innings in his six-year-long Test career.
5. Graeme Cremer – 57 Test wickets for Zimbabwe
Cremer produced one of the best performances by a Zimbabwean bowler when he bagged nine wickets in a one-off Test against Sri Lanka in 2017. He recorded his best bowling figures in an innings, 5/125, and his best bowling figures in a match, 9/275, in that encounter.
His international career was in two parts. He played six Tests in 2005, which were followed by a seven-year drought because Zimbabwe wasn’t playing Test cricket. He picked up international cricket again from 2012 to 2017. The former Zimbabwe captain finished with 57 wickets in 27 innings, with a single five-wicket haul to his name.
4. Henry Olonga – 68 Test wickets for Zimbabwe
Henry Olonga broke the colour barrier for Zimbabwe. He was the first black cricketer to represent Zimbabwe in international cricket. Then he also became the first black cricketer to speak out against Robert Mugabe’s government in 2003, when he and Andy Flower staged a protest during the 2003 World Cup. That move ended his international career.
Olonga burst onto the international scene as a tearaway fast bowler, then he was reported for throwing. He rebuilt his action from the ground up, but was never as fast as before. Olonga made his mark when he dismissed Nayan Monga, Navjot Sidhu, Mohammad Azharuddin, Sourav Ganguly, and Robin Singh to record his maiden five-wicket haul in 1998.
He finished that match with his best bowling figures in a match, 5/70. He registered his second five-wicket haul four years later when he bagged 5/93 against Pakistan. Olonga took 68 wickets in 47 innings during his seven-year international career.
3 Paul Strang – 70 Test wickets for Zimbabwe
Strang produced his finest Test cricket performance when he recorded a match double of a century and a five-wicket haul in a single Test against Pakistan in 1998. Strang used his repertoire of deliveries: regular legbreaks, googlies, topspinners and flippers, to bag 5/212. The five-wicket haul came on the back of an unbeaten 106 in Zimbabwe’s first innings.
Strang could have gone on to claim more victims had his career not been cut short by a chronic muscular injury in his bowling hand. He played from 1994 to 2001 and claimed 70 wickets in 38 innings. He was one of only three Zimbabwean bowlers with a five-wicket haul to their name; the other two are Ray Price and Adam Huckle.
2. Ray Price – 80 Test wickets for Zimbabwe
Price picked up the baton from Paul Strang and went on to become Zimbabwe’s most successful spinner. The left-arm spinner had a knack for taking five-wicket hauls in clumps. He bagged two consecutive five-wicket hauls in 2001 and 2002 against India and South Africa.
Then in 2003, he took three five-wicket hauls in a row against Australia and the West Indies in an outstanding run of Test cricket form. Price featured for Zimbabwe from 1999 to 2013, with a hiatus between 2005 and 2011 when Zimbabwe did not play Test cricket. He took 80 wickets in 35 innings, with five five-wicket hauls to his name.
1. Heath Streak – 216 Test wickets for Zimbabwe
Heath Streak might be the second-best cricketer Zimbabwe has produced, marginally trailing the incredible Andy Flower. The all-rounder gave his all for his nation as a player and then as a coach after his retirement.
Streak announced himself to the world with a five-wicket haul in his second Test match in December 1993. He was 19 at the time. He took six more five-wicket hauls over the next 12 years on his way to becoming Zimbabwe’s leading wicket-taker with a tally of 216 wickets in 102 innings. He is one of four Zimbabwean bowlers with 30 or more Test wickets with an average below 30. He averaged 28.14.