MUMBAI, India — New Zealand's Mumbai-born
Ajaz Patel
added two more wickets to his record 10 Sunday morning, raising teammates'
hopes of him getting all 20 Indian wickets in the second Test, fellow spinner
Rachin Ravindra revealed.
اضافة اعلان
Ajaz, a left-arm spinner, returned best-ever figures of
14-225 against India, surpassing Ian Botham's 13-106 in 1980 at Mumbai.
He had already joined an elite club of three bowlers
including England's Jim Laker (1956) and India's Anil Kumble (1999) to take 10
wickets in one Test innings. Laker finished with 19 in the match against
Australia.
Ajaz improved his match tally to 12 in the first session
before Ravindra, another Kiwi of Indian origin, broke through to get his maiden
Test wicket on day three at Mumbai's Wankhede Stadium.
"It was a pretty funny moment because we thought Jazzy
(Ajaz) would take all 20 here," Ravindra, who is playing his second Test,
said after he claimed the wicket of Shubman Gill for 47.
"They (
New Zealand players) congratulated me for taking
my first wicket. It was pretty special, the guys coming up to me."
Ravindra, a left-arm spinner, got three of the seven Indian
wickets to fall before the hosts declared their innings on 276-7, leaving New
Zealand to chase an improbable 540 and were 140-5 at the close of play.
Ravindra bowled just a few overs in the first two days due
to a bug he caught on the morning of the game.
Ajaz ruled in an otherwise ordinary New Zealand bowling as
he returned figures of 10-119 after getting down 47.5 overs in India's 325 in
the first innings.
"I couldn't be happier for Jazzy. He's an incredible
bloke and a great spinner. He embodies the Kiwi fighting spirit incredibly
well," said Ravindra, who had stood unbeaten with Ajaz at the other end to
help New Zealand hang on to a draw in the opening match.
"Taking 14 wickets is ludicrous, I am still trying to
process that. Each time we gave him the ball, we knew he was going to give us a
result. Having him in the team is also helps me and the others as he knows a
lot about the game."
Ajaz, who moved to Auckland with his parents in 1996, made
his debut for New Zealand in 2018 as a 30-year-old and is playing his 11th
match.
He credited Kiwi bowling coach Shane Jurgensen for his
record-equaling display of 10 wickets in an innings.
"Shane really fizzed me up for this one," said
Ajaz on Saturday.
"If I'm honest, the last game I probably didn't have
the rhythm that I wanted, and Shane sent me a little clip of me against the
world, basically.
"It was exactly what I needed and he just keeps finding
ways to get the best out of guys."
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