20 Facts about Shane Bond: The blue lightning

Shane Bond, the New Zealand speedster is known for touching 150 Kmph consistently. With an exciting bowling action, Bond is known to be a strike bowler for his team. However, regular injuries shortened his career. On the occasion of his 41st birthday, here are few facts about the right-handed pacer.

1. Police Career:

Shane Bond trained as a policeman in 1999-2000 due to which he had to miss out a domestic season. He worked as a Police officer in Christchurch before becoming an International player.

2. Professional Cricket debut:

Bond made his professional Cricket debut in 1997 for Canterbury.

3. U19 Career:

He had featured in U-19 level for New Zealand in only one game. He played Youth Test in March, 1995 at Hamilton where he top scored with the bat scoring an unbeaten 45 by batting out 127 balls. He bowled only 5 overs in the game and didn’t concede a run in it.

4. International debut:

The right arm pacer made his International debut in November, 2001 at Hobart against Australia in a Test match.

5. Unique start to Test career:

His first 3 wickets in Test Cricket are Steve Waugh, Matthew Hayden and Justin Langer. All the 3 were dismissed for a duck.

6. ODI Debut:

In 2002, Bond made his ODI debut against Australia at Melbourne. He picked up 3 wickets of Mark Waugh, Ricky Ponting and Steve Waugh in the game.

7. Debut World Cup:

He has featured in 2003 CWC where he picked up 17 wickets in just 8 games as stood as 5th highest wicket taker. He recorded figures of 6/23 vs Australia, which were the best figures in ODIs by a New Zealander at that time.

8. Best figures in ODI Cricket:

Shane Bond stunned India with his pace at Bulawayo as he recorded figures of 9-3-19-6, improving his bowling figures of 6/23 in 2003 CWC. He picked 5 wickets in his first 6 overs in the game. With this, he became the first and only New Zealand player to pick two 6-wicket hauls in ODIs. So far, only 8 other players have picked two 6-wicket hauls in ODIs.

9. Hat trick in ODI Cricket:

Bond picked up a hat trick in his International career, which came in an ODI vs Australia at Hobart in 2007. He got wickets of Andrew Symonds, Cameron White and Nathan Bracken during his hat trick.

10. Record in ODI Cricket:

He took just 54 matches to reach 100 ODI wickets. He is the fastest New Zealand player to the milestone and the 2nd fastest in overall.

11. Never played in England:

He played for Warwickshire and Hampshire in England domestic circuit but he never played an International game there.

12. Debut in World T20:

He played in 2007 World T20 where he picked up 7 wickets in 6 games. He bowled the first ever maiden over in World T20 history.

13. Brilliant bowling strike rate:

Bond has picked up 259 wickets in 120 international games at a strike rate of 31.3, the best for any bowler who picked a minimum of 150 wickets.

His bowling strike rates in ODI and Tests read 29.2 and 38.7 which are the 2nd best for any player in respective formats.

14. Tough customer for Ricky Ponting:

Australian captain Ricky Ponting had the tough time while facing Shane Bond as the New Zealand speedster got Ponting on 7 occasions in ODI Cricket. Bond also got Chris Gayle 7 times in International Cricket; 3 times in Tests, 3 times in ODIs and once in T20Is.

15. Injury prone:

Between Bond’s first and last game in International career, New Zealand played 307 games while Shane Bond played just 120 games.

16. Indian Cricket League:

Shane Bond featured in the Rebel League ICL. He played for Delhi Giants in two seasons in 2008. Later he terminated his contract in 2009 and returned to International Cricket.

17. Indian Premier League:

Kolkata Knight Riders bought Bond for 750,000 USD in IPL 3 auctions. He picked 9 wickets in 8 games he featured in the tournament.

18. Masters Cricket League:

Shane Bond played for Sagittarius Soldiers in the inaugural edition of MCL and picked up 5 wickets.

19. Coaching career:

Shane Bond turned up as New Zealand’s bowling coach from October, 2012 to March, 2015. Later he signed up as a coach of IPL team Mumbai Indians in 2015.

20. Awards:

In 2007, Bond received New Zealand player of the year award for 2006/07 season. In the same year, he was included in ICC Test XI of the year.