Top 5 bowling performances of Kane Richardson in international cricket

Kane Richardson‘s international career has been a stop-start one so far. He has been constantly in and out of the Australian side but has never really managed to cement his place in the playing XI. The result is that he has played only 45 games at the age of 29.

Though it might be true that fellow pacer buddies like Pat Cummins and Mitchell Starc have gone ahead of him in the pecking order, Richardson has bowled quite a few magical spells in the 45 matches he played for Australia.

Let us have a look at the top 5 bowling performances of Kane Richardson in international cricket:

5. 3/51 vs England (2018)

We start off our list with the ODI match between England and Australia, which took place at Manchester in 2018. Batting first, Australia had a horrific start. Thanks to Alex Carey and D’Arcy Short‘s resilience, they managed to cross the 200-run mark.

But even then, Australia needed a superb start. They got just that and England were 4 wickets down with just 27 runs on the board. Just as when they were forming a partnership, Richardson chipped in and got the crucial wicket of Alex Hales. Sam Curran and Jos Buttler formed a 28-run partnership, but Richardson again provided the breakthrough by dismissing the former. In the same over, he dismissed Liam Plunkett. Unfortunately, it wasn’t enough to seal the victory.

4. 3/33 vs England (2018)

The second mention on our list of top 5 bowling performances of Kane Richardson in international cricket is again from a match between England and Australia. However, this was a T20I game, and Australia eventually ended up as winners in this one.

Batting first, England lost Alex Hales in the second over. Richardson got his first wicket in the form of Jason Roy in the third over. He then came alive again at the death and picked up the wickets of David Willey and Jos Buttler in the same over. Richardson’s spell helped Australia restrict England to under 140.

3. 3/47 vs Sri Lanka (2019)

This spell came in last’s year ICC Cricket World Cup, against Sri Lanka. Batting first at The Oval, Australia scored a big total of 334 runs. Kusal Perera and Dimuth Karunaratne gave Sri Lanka a superb start. They scored 115 runs for the first-wicket partnership, but then things started to turn for worse.

While Starc dismissed Perera, Richardson picked up the crucial wicket of Karunaratne. Once again, Richardson came alive at the death overs. He picked up two wickets in two consecutive overs, in the form of Isuru Udana and Lasith Malinga.

2. 3/18 vs Pakistan (2019)

This mention on the list of top 5 bowling performances of Kane Richardson in international cricket is from a game where Richardson both picked up wickets and was also extremely economical. It was a T20I game between Australia and Pakistan at Perth. Batting first, Pakistan got off to a nightmare of a start.

They lost 4 wickets inside 54 runs, and Richardson joined the party after that. His first wicket came in the form of Khushdil Shah, in the 13th over. He then picked up two crucial wickets in the 17th over. Iftikar Ahmed and Shadab Khan were the victims. Richardson’s spell helped Australia restrict Pakistan to a nominal score of just 106, which the Kangaroos had no problem in chasing down.

1. 5/68 vs India (2016)

Indians fans might not enjoy this list, as Richardson’s only 5-wicket haul in international cricket came against the men in blue. In was in an ODI game against India, at Canberra in 2016. It is also the farthest back we have gone in our list. Batting first, Australia scored a humongous total of 327, thanks to sublime knocks from openers David Warner and Aaron Finch.

Just like Australia, India had a great start to their run chase as well. Rohit Sharma and Shikhar Dhawan started off brilliantly, as India crossed the 50-run mark in no time, and without losing any wicket. Richardson provided the first breakthrough in the eighth over, when he dismissed Sharma. Virat Kohli then scored a brilliant century, but just as when the Delhi lad was about to take India over the like, Richardson got the better of him. Then he picked up three wickets in three consecutive overs, to complete his first 5-wicket haul. Ajinkya Rahane, Rishi Dhawan and Bhuvneshwar Kumar were the batters who had to bear the brunt.