Left-arm spinner Pragyan Ojha on Saturday completed his 100 wickets in Test cricket on the second day of the fourth and final match of the series against Australia here, becoming the third fastest Indian to reach the milestone.
Ojha dismissed James Pattinson as his 100th victim in the morning session to bring an end to Australia’s first innings at 262 all out at the Feroze Shah Kotla ground.
Ojha achieved the feat in his 22nd Test and, in the process, becomes the third fastest Indian to get 100 wickets behind legendary spinners Erapalli Prasanna (20 Tests) and Anil Kumble (21).
The 26-year-old from Orissa dismissed Pattinson on the first ball of his 27th over when the Australian pacer got the leading edge while playing for the turn and Virat Kohli completing a sharp catch at slips. Ojha finished with innings figures of 26.1-6-75-1 at an economy rate of 2.86.
Ojha, who made his Test debut against Sri Lanka in Kanpur in 2009, has not played a single match in the longer format overseas. His best bowling figure (6/47) came against the West Indies in Mumbai in 2011.
Today’s milestone has made Ojha the 18th Indian overall and world’s 163rd bowler to get to the 100-wicket figure.
Ojha also becomes the fifth left-arm spinner from India to get to the milestone, the others being Bishan Singh Bedi, Vinoo Mankad, Ravi Shastri and Dilip Doshi.
Meanwhile, R.Ashwin on Saturday equalled Anil Kumble’s record of a 27-wicket haul in a four-Test series when he dismissed Australia’s Peter Siddle this morning to finish with figures of 34-18-57-5.
Ashwin can surpass Kumble’s record if he gets a wicket in Australia’s second innings in the ongoing Test. This was the ninth time Ashwin has got five wickets or more in 16 Tests he has played so far. In this series, this was his fourth five-wicket haul.
Kumble’s achievement had come in 2004-05 series against Australia which India lost 1-2 with a match in Chennai being washed away.
Leg-spinner B.S.Chandrasekhar holds the Indian record of most Test wickets in a series. He had 35 wickets in the five-Test home series against England in 1972-73.
