Liam Plunkett
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 England (Eng) |
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| Batting style | Right hand bat | |
|---|---|---|
| Bowling type | Right arm fast medium | |
| Tests | ODIs | |
| Matches | 6 | 24 |
| Runs scored | 69 | 287 |
| Batting average | 8.62 | 26.09 |
| 100s/50s | -/- | -/1 |
| Top score | 28 | 56 |
| Balls bowled | 1004 | 1129 |
| Wickets | 16 | 31 |
| Bowling average | 37.56 | 35.22 |
| 5 wickets in innings | - | - |
| 10 wickets in match | - | n/a |
| Best bowling | 3/17 | 3/24 |
| Catches/stumpings | 2/- | 5/- |
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As of March 24, 2007 |
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Liam Edward Plunkett (born 6 April 1985 in Middlesbrough) is an English cricketer who plays for Durham and England. In the 2005 season he was Durham's leading first-class wicket-taker, with 51 wickets at a bowling average of 30.84, including eight for 88 in his first game of the season against Leicestershire.
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[edit] Test cricket
He was called up for the England one-day international and Test squads to tour Pakistan in November & December 2005 after an injury to Simon Jones. He made his Test debut in the third Test of that series in Lahore taking figures of 2-125 in the innings defeat.
He was subsequently taken on the 2006 tour to India. He played in the second Test at Mohali, replacing Ian Blackwell in the side. However, he was largely unimpressive, taking only one wicket and scoring just one run over two innings. He was replaced by James Anderson for the third Test.
Injuries to Steve Harmison, Anderson and Jones meant Plunkett started the first Test of the Sri Lankan tour of England in the summer of 2006. He achieved his best figures to date on 25 May 2006, when taking 3 wickets before lunch against in the second Test at Edgbaston. This included a double wicket maiden in his first over of the day, dismissing Michael Vandort and Mahela Jayawardene.
He was in the squad for the 2006-07 Ashes series, but didn't play in a test. Indeed, some cricket commentators have questioned the value of him being in the squad, leading to the humorous suggestion that he is there to work as a translator for fellow Durham player Paul Collingwood, a somewhat cruel joke about the northeastern English dialects.[1]
[edit] One Day International cricket
Plunkett came on as a Super Sub in his first ODI on 10 December 2005 after Kevin Pietersen went off with a back injury. Plunkett finished with England's best bowling figures, taking 3 wickets for 51 runs, and he was also involved in the run out of Shoaib Akhtar. They were three of the last six wickets, which fell for 23 as England went on to win the match by 42 runs.
Two days later, when Plunkett entered the crease, England's score was a disappointing 130 for 8 in the second ODI. He added 56 runs to the total in a record ninth-wicket 100 run partnership with Vikram Solanki before chipping a return catch to Shoaib Akhtar.
England needed to keep the Pakistani run rate below five an over, however, after setting a target of 231, but Plunkett's seven overs went for 63 - Kamran Akmal taking 39 off the 25 balls Plunkett bowled to him. [2]
Plunkett did not feature in another ODI match until 30th January 2007, against New Zealand in Perth, Australia. He took 3 wickets for 54 runs in 9 overs. He was also picked in the next game against Australia on 2nd February 2007 in Sydney. He took 3 wickets for 34 runs off 9.5 overs. Perhaps the highlights of Plunkett's bowling was the wicket of stand in captain and wicketkeeper Adam Gilchrist. Plunkett bowled Gilchrist with the very first ball of Australia's innings. He also took the wickets of Michael Clarke (caught by wicketkeeper Paul Nixon) for 18 runs and Glenn McGrath, lbw, after McGrath had scored just 1 run.
As proof of his worth as a tailender, after just 18 ODI games he holds a part of both the 8th and 9th wicket partnership records for England.[3]
[edit] Twenty20 International cricket
Plunkett made his international Twenty20 debut on 15 June 2006 against Sri Lanka, taking 1-37 from four overs; he did not bat.
[edit] Driving ban
In February 2007 Plunkett was banned from driving for twenty months, after being convicted for a drink driving offence in October 2006.[2]
[edit] Reference
- ^ From the Guardian, 8th December, 2006. [1]
- ^ Driving ban for England cricketer
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England squad - 2007 Cricket World Cup | |
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1 Bell | 2 Bopara | 3 Joyce | 4 Pietersen | 5 Strauss | 6 Vaughan | 7 Collingwood | 8 Dalrymple | 9 Flintoff | 10 Nixon | 11 Anderson | 12 Lewis | 13 Mahmood | 14 Panesar | 15 Plunkett | Coach: Fletcher |
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