Irfan's peculiar habit

The Indian bowler has developed a strange habit of striking early in an innings, writes Rajneesh Gupta.

Irfan Pathan seems to have developed a rather peculiar habit of striking early in an innings. The dismissal of Salman Butt off his second ball in the Rawalpindi match was the eighth such instance when the Indian claimed a wicket in his very first over in a one-day international.

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Of the eight instances, India have won five and lost three times. Two of the defeats came against Pakistan.

Following are the details of the eight games where Pathan went on to claim a wicket in his very first over:

Ball	Victim	Final Bowling Figures	Venue	Year	Result for India
4th	Vusimuzi Sibanda (Zim)	10-1-24-4	Perth	2004	Won by 4 wickets
5th	Arshad Ali (UAE)	8-0-28-3	Dambulla	2004	Won by116 runs
6th	Imran Nazir (Pak)	10-0-52-3	Colombo RPS	2004	Lost by 59 runs
6th	Imran Farhat (Pak)	9-1-34-3	Birmingham	2004	Lost by 3 wickets
6th	Sanath Jayasuriya (SL)	8-0-37-4	Mohali	2005	Won by 8 wickets
5th	Abraham de Villiers (SA)	6-1-23-3	Bangalore	2005	Won by 6 wickets
6th	Upul Tharanga (SL)	10-0-38-1	Dambulla	2005	Lost by 4 wickets
2nd	Salman Butt (Pak)	10-1-43-3	Rawalpindi	2006	Won by 7 wickets

At Perth, Pathan also dismissed Tatenda Taibu in the same over (off his sixth ball).