Five Bowlers Who Took Wickets On The Last Ball Of Their Careers

In a cricket match, taking a wicket is always special for each bowler out there. For every dismissal, bowlers try to set up different ways to trap a batsman. This is why, there are so many variations out there nowadays, apart from the traditional in-swing and the out-swing.

In cricketing history, there have been a lot of legendary bowlers but only a select few were able to inflict a dismissal even in the last delivery of their career.

Today, we will be listing below five such bowlers who managed to scalp wickets on the very last deliveries of their respective careers.

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Five bowlers who took wickets on the last ball of their careers:

5) Adam Gilchrist

The surprising inclusion, up first. Adam Gilchrist, who is widely recognised as arguably one of the best wicketkeepers of all time, inflicted a dismissal on Harbhajan Singh in the Indian Premier League (IPL).

Having already called time on his international career, Gilchrist who was a batsman by trade decided to casually roll his arm in the last competitive match of his professional career.

The 48-year-old surprisingly lured Harbhajan into a false stroke to dismiss him and picked up a wicket on the last ball of his career.

As soon as the Australian legend claimed Harbhajan’s wicket, he started dancing. Former player turned cricket expert, Gilchrist is nowadays seen as a cricket analyst for the Big Bash League (BBL), in Australia.

4) Lasith Malinga

Lasith Malinga was a one of kind bowler, who used to bamboozle batsmen with toe crunching yorkers. He is a powerplay and death overs specialist and continues to give away nightmares to batsmen in the T20I format.

In his final ODI match though, against Bangladesh at Colombo, the 36-year-old scalped the wicket of Mustafizur Rahman, who could only send a slow dipping delivery from Malinga, high in the air.

Thisara Periera took the catch on mid-off to help his compatriot join the illustrious list of cricketers to have inflicted a dismissal on their last ball before retirement.

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3) Sir Richard Hadlee

New Zealand legend Sir Richard Hadlee was an expert of swing bowling in his era. He was one of the key players in New Zealand’s rise to cricketing royalty in the longest version of the sport.

The 68-year-old is widely regarded as one of the best fast bowlers in the history of cricket.

Before bidding adieu to international cricket though, Hadlee in his last match picked up the wicket of England’s D. Malcolm on the last delivery of his career, thereby becoming one of five international bowlers to achieved this feat.

The former right-arm speedster was the first player in cricketing history to reach the double of 1000 runs and 100 wickets in ODI cricket.

2) Muttiah Muralitharan

Former Sri Lankan spin legend Muttiah Muralitharan finished his Test career on a successful note by dismissing Pragyan Ojha on the last delivery of his Test career against India at Galle.

Often hailed as one of the best spin bowlers the world has ever seen, Muralitharan also achieved a momentous 800th Test wicket by claiming the wicket of Ojha.

The spin wizard invitingly tossed a ball high up and managed to notch a faint edge off the Indian tail ender’s willow, and Mahela Jayawardene did the rest.

A testament of the 47-year-old’s legacy is his record of having amassed the highest number of international wickets combined across all formats (1347).

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1) Glenn McGrath

Probably one of the greatest fast bowlers to have taken to the cricket field, Glenn McGrath holds an illustrious feat of having picked up a wicket on the final ball of his ODI career, Test career and T2oI career.

He was well renowned for having an acute sense of line and length and bowling consistent wicket-taking deliveries.

The former Australian phenom, in the last ball of his Test career, took the wicket of England’s James Anderson.

McGrath dismissed Paul Nixon in the ultimate delivery of his ODI career and claimed the wicket of Paul Collingwood in the last ball of his T20I career, to etch his name in the history book forever.

The 50-year-old concluded his incredible career having amassed 949 wickets in all formats.