Liam Plunkett

Liam Edward Plunkett (born 6 April 1985) is an English cricketer, who plays for Yorkshire 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.

Test cricket

Plunkett 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 2005–06 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 three 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 did not 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 joke about the north-eastern English dialects.^[2]

He was selected in the 12-man squad to play in the first test in the 2007 West Indies tour of England.^[3]

One Day International cricket

Plunkett bowls in the Adelaide Oval nets

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.^[4]

Plunkett did not feature in another ODI match until 30 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 2 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 and Glenn McGrath.

As proof of his worth as a tailender, after just 18 ODI games he held a part of both the 8th and 9th wicket partnership records for England.^[5]

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.

Driving bans

In February 2007, Plunkett was banned from driving for twenty months, after being convicted for a drink driving offence in October 2006.^[6] In August 2012 he was convicted of a second drink driving offence and banned from driving for 40 months.^[7]

Involvement in South Africa

Plunkett signed for the Nashua Dolphins in November 2007, fellow Durham fast bowler Steve Harmison signed for Highveld Lions. Harmison and Plunkett actually played against each other in a four-day match on 15–18 November 2007.

Move to Yorkshire

In October 2012, Plunkett signed to play for Yorkshire. He stated, "At this stage of my career, I believe that a fresh challenge would benefit me and I feel this is required to help me reach my goal of representing my country again".^[8]

References

External links

• Player profile: Liam Plunkett from ESPNcricinfo

v t e England squad – 2007 Cricket World Cup 5 Collingwood 7 Bell 9 Anderson 11 Flintoff 14 Strauss 17 Plunkett 18 Lewis 19 Mahmood 24 Pietersen 34 Dalrymple 36 Joyce 39 Broad 42 Bopara 46 Panesar 47 Nixon 99 Vaughan Coach: Fletcher Stuart Broad was called up to replace Jon Lewis, who had to return home due to family problems