Most consecutive wickets taken in an international cricket match

Sri Lanka’s Lasith Malinga (twice), Rashid Khan (Afghanistan), Germany’s Anuradha Doddaballapur (b. India), Curtis Campher (Ireland, b. South Africa) and Barbadian Jason Holder (West Indies) are the select group of bowlers who have taken four wickets with four consecutive deliveries at international level. In a first-round group match at the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup on 18 October 2021, Campher “did a Malinga” with four in four against the Netherlands at Zayed Cricket Stadium in Abu Dhabi, UAE. Colin Ackermann (caught), Ryan ten Doeschate (lbw), Scott Edwards (lbw) and Roelof van der Merwe (bowled) were the Dutch batters sent back to the hutch by the 22-year-old right-arm medium-fast bowler, who was playing only his fifth T20 International for Ireland. On his home ground – the Kensington Oval in Bridgetown, Barbados – Holder became the latest addition to the ‘four in four club’ at the culmination of the West Indies’ five-match T20 series against England on 30 January 2022. Chris Jordan, Sam Billings and Adil Rashid all holed out to fielders in the deep as the visitors chased an unlikely series victory in the last over, and Saqib Mahmood was bowled with the last ball of the match as Holder finished with 5 for 27 from 2.5 overs.

The now-retired paceman Malinga removed South African batters Shaun Pollock (bowled), Andrew Hall (caught), Jacques Kallis (caught) and Makhaya Ntini (bowled) during an ICC World Cup "Super Eights" (ODI) match at Providence Stadium, Guyana, on 28 March 2007. Fast-forward to 2019, when Rashid Khan dismissed Ireland’s Kevin O’Brien (caught), George Dockrell (caught), Shane Getkate (stumped) and Simi Singh (lbw) in a T20I at the Rajiv Gandhi International Cricket Stadium in Dehradun, Uttarakhand, India, on 24 February, and Malinga claimed his second four-for – Colin Munro (bowled), Hamish Rutherford (lbw), Colin de Grandhomme (bowled) and Ross Taylor (lbw) – in a T20I against New Zealand at Pallekele International Cricket Stadium in Sri Lanka on 6 September 2019. Doddaballapur added her name to the list in a T20I against Austria at Lower Austria’s Seebarn Cricket Centre on 14 August 2020, ripping out the hosts’ middle order of Jo-Antoinette Stiglitz (caught), Tuğçe Kazancı (bowled), Anisha Nookala (bowled) and Priya Sabu (bowled) with consecutive deliveries. After taking a fifth Austrian wicket, Doddaballapur finished the contest with the astonishing figures of 5 for 1 from 3 overs with her medium-pacers.