Washington Sundar Creates History in Pune, Becomes First Bowler To… – News18

Last Updated:October 24, 2024, 16:23 IST

Washington Sundar finds himself in the record books after his exemplary performance with the ball picking up his maiden Test five-wicket haul during the second Test against New Zealand.

Team India’s move to bring in Washington Sundar has proven to be a masterstroke as he finished with figures of 7/59 having bowled 23.1 overs in the opening day of the second Test against New Zealand Pune, Maharashtra.

The match, held at the Maharashtra Cricket Ground, proved to be one for the spinners. He bamboozled the New Zealand batters with his off-spinning deliveries to help India get back in the game after a slow start to the day.

Sundar picked up his maiden five-wicket haul in Test cricket and also picked up the best bowling figures in this venue for the longest format. He pipped the likes of Steve O’Keefe and Nathan Lyon from Australia along with fellow Indian pacer Umesh Yadav to take the record.  He also becomes the first Indian bowler to take a fifer at this venue as well.

The 25-year-old all-rounder also joins an elite list of Indian bowlers to hold the fourth-best bowling figures in the history of Test matches between India and New Zealand. The likes of S Venkataraghavan, EAS Prasanna and Ravi Ashwin all hold better figures ahead of Sundar.

Sundar’s accuracy was on point against the Kiwis where he managed to hit the stumps on five occasions. The likes of Rachin Ravindra, Tom Blundell, Mitchell Santner, Tim Southee and Ajaz Patel all were beaten by Sundar’s deliveries with the ball crashing onto the stumps to ensure that he shares a unique record to equal the most batters dismissed via bowled in an inning among Indian bowlers.

Team India will be extremely pleased with Sundar’s exploits in Pune with many questioning whether the team management had pushed the panic button by bringing him in when the squad already had the likes of Kuldeep Yadav or Axar Patel in the squad.

But Sundar has been in good form albeit with the bat where he scored a mammoth 152 runs for his state side, Tamil Nadu during their recent Ranji Trophy fixture against Delhi. He also chipped in with a few wickets with the ball as well but it goes to show that things are going well for the all-rounder.

But now the onus will be on the Indian batters to ensure that they can perform better than their New Zealand counterparts help get a good innings total on the board and take the lead to put them in contention for a victory.