New Zealand’s Ajaz Patel took ten wickets in an innings to become only the third cricketer in the history of the game to achieve the feat. His final scalp was Mohammed Siraj who he had him caught to end the Indian innings for 325 during the second Test in Mumbai. Patel, who was born in the same city, came back at this very venue to achieve the biggest feat of his life. It’s like his life came to a full circle.
His superb feat began when he dismissed opener Shubman Gill on day 1 with a beauty. He had beaten him earlier and then he had his man on the very next ball. He then triggered a mini collapse by removing the likes of Pujara and Kohli, reducing India to 80/3. Although Mayank Agarwal kept attacking him, but he never gave up. He managed to remove Shreyas Iyer to complete a four-for by the time stumps was called at Wankhede.
On the very next day, he struck again, removing Wriddhiman Saha and Ravichandran Ashwin in quick succession. By then, no one felt that he would be achieving a ten-wicket haul. It was only after he managed to dismiss centurion Mayank Agarwal that people started talking about this huge probability of creating history. The next three wickets fell in a heap as he finished the figures of 10-119, becoming only the third cricketer on the planet to take all ten wickets in an innings.
