HiSTORIC – Ajaz Patel surpasses Ian Botham to accomplish this 41-year-old record

HiSTORIC – Ajaz Patel surpasses Ian Botham to accomplish this 41-year-old record

Ajaz Patel

The second and final Test match between India and New Zealand is currently underway at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai. Meanwhile, the Kiwi spinner Ajaz Patel has suddenly become the talk of the town after smashing plenty of records with his terrific bowling against the hosts.

The 33-year-old achieved the unique feat of taking all ten wickets during the first innings of team India. Patel became only the third bowler in the history of the game to reach this milestone as Jim Laker (England) and Anil Kumble (India) did this before him.

Interestingly, Ajaz didn’t stop as he went on to claim four more wickets in the second innings to take his wickets tally to 14. The Mumbai-born ended the game with an astonishing bowling figure of 14/225 at the end of more than 70 overs. With this spell, he bettered Sir Ian Botham’s 13/106, registered back in 1980 to claim the best bowling numbers against India in a Test match.

Adding to this, Ajaz Patel now also has the second-best bowling figures by a Kiwi bowler in Test cricket history. Here is the list of top spells by NZ:

  • 15/123 Richard Hadlee v Australia 1985
  • 14/225 Ajaz Patel v India 2021
  • 12/149 Daniel Vettori v Australia 2000
  • 12/170 Daniel Vettori v Bangladesh 2004

Ajaz Patel’s effort might go in vain as Team India sets a whopping 540-runs target

Ravichandran Ashwin
Ravichandran Ashwin is expected to rip apart the Kiwi batting in second innings

The slow left-arm orthodox bowler’s efforts might not bring glory to the result for his team as the visitors have a mammoth target of 540 runs in their second innings. Virat Kohli and Co had gained a huge lead of 263 runs after bundling out the opposition for merely 62 runs. 

The ‘Asian Giants’ added another 276 runs after decent contributions from almost all their batters. However, the home team declared the innings after the loss of the seventh wicket to finish off things quickly.

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