Head spinner: NZ’s Ajaz makes his way into elite club

MUMBAI, December 4

New Zealand spinner Ajaz Patel became only the third bowler to pick up all 10 wickets in an innings in international cricket, achieving the rare feat against India in the second Test at the Wankhede Stadium today.

The 33-year-old joined England off-spinner Jim Laker (1956, against Australia) and India leg-spinner Anil Kumble (1999, against Pakistan) in picking up all wickets in an innings.

“Welcome to the club #AjazPatel #Perfect10. Well bowled! A special effort to achieve it on Day 1 and two of a Test match,” spin bowling great Kumble, who took 619 Test wickets for India, said on Twitter.

To be honest, it’s pretty surreal. It’s brilliant for me, my family and my wife. You spend a lot of time away from home as a cricketer and I’m just grateful to God for this, this occasion. Very illustrious group to be a part of. Great to see his (Kumble) message and his kind words. Humbled and fortunate to be in that company. To be born here and then come back here and achieve something like that, it’s pretty special. —Ajaz Patel, New zealand bowler

It was the first time a bowler took 10 wickets in an innings in a Test away from home, although he was playing his first Test in the city of his birth.

Ajaz, whose parents immigrated to New Zealand in 1996, added six wickets to the four he took on the first day on Friday to finish with figures of 10-119.

“To be honest, it’s pretty surreal,” he said in a post-innings interview. “I don’t think you ever believe you’re going to achieve something like that. So to be able to do it in my career, it’s pretty special.”

Ajaz said he had yet to comprehend the magnitude of his achievement and thanked Kumble for his message.

“These things don’t sink in until later,” he later told reporters. “It’s brilliant for me, my family and my wife. You spend a lot of time away from home as a cricketer and I’m just grateful to God for this, this occasion. Very illustrious group to be a part of. Great to see his (Kumble) message and his kind words. Humbled and fortunate to be in that company.” —Reuters

Perfect 10

New Zealand’s Ajaz Patel is only the third bowler in 2,439 Test matches over 144 years to take all 10 wickets in an innings. The third member of the Perfect-10 Club is also a spinner

10/53

Off-spinner Jim Laker of England became the first bowler to take 10 wickets in a Test innings in 1956, against Australia in Manchester. He had taken nine wickets in the first innings and England won by an innings and 170 runs.

10/74

Indian leg-spinner Anil Kumble bowled out Pakistan for 207 in the second innings of the New Delhi Test in February 1999. Kumble finished with 14 wickets in the match as India won by an innings and 212 runs.

10/119

Left-arm spinner Ajaz Patel is the third to take all wickets in an innings. Laker had achieved the feat in the third innings of a Test and Kumble in the fourth, but Patel did it in the first innings. However, his team is almost certain to lose.