5 Bowling records held by batsmen in professional cricket

2. Consecutive 5-wicket hauls in Twenty20 cricket

Faf du Plessis is known for his batting and athletic fielding efforts but he has unique record as a bowler which is not known to many. Du Plessis is a handy leg-spinner but hasn’t been bowling in recent times at the International stage. Faf last bowled for South Africa after the completion of 2015 World Cup. In fact, Du Plessis has bowled only 3.2 overs as a captain; and all of them during 2012-13 season only. FaF du Plessis used to be a regular bowler in his career’s first half which helped him bag two 5-fers; both in the T20s.

First of Faf’s two 5-wicket hauls came during October 2011 in a CSA Provisional T20 match. Du Plessis was tough to handle for the Easterns team who were chasing 159 to win. Faf registered figures of 5/19 in his four overs as Easterns finished with 145/8 and fell 13 runs short of Northerns total of 158/6. Later during a MiWAY T20 Challenge match in March 2012, Faf du Plessis came to the rescue of his team Titans. He came to bowl as the 7th bowler when the Lions were cruising at 97/2 after 12 overs.

Du Plessis recorded bowling figures of 5/28 in the four overs he bowled as the Lions were limited to 163/7 but the Titans ended up losing the game by 16 runs. Both the 5-wicket hauls of Du Plessis came in successive innings as the only T20 game he played between the 5-fers ended without a result after 10.3 overs of the Titans’ batting. Thus, Faf du Plessis became the first player in Twenty20 history with successive 5-fers. Ireland’s Craig Young replicated this feat in 2017 with 5-fers in back to back T20s.