• The New Zealand spinner only third bowler to take all 10 wickets but India still ahead by 332 runs
New Zealand’s Mumbai-born spinner Ajaz Patel took a record 10 wickets in an innings but their batsmen collapsed to leave India in control of the second Test on day two.
Ajaz emulated England’s Jim Laker (1956 vs Australia) and Indian spin legend Anil Kumble (1999 vs Pakistan) to complete his perfect 10 in the second session and bowl out India for 325.
But New Zealand’s batsmen collapsed to 62 all out and India were 332 ahead by stumps at the Wankhede Stadium after not enforcing the follow-on and reaching 69 for 0 in their second innings. First-innings centurion Mayank Agarwal, on 38, and Cheteshwar Pujara, on 29, made to open the innings after Shubman Gill suffered a blow to his elbow while fielding and could not take the field, were batting.
Indian off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin claimed four wickets and fast bowler Mohamed Siraj took three in the New Zealand innings on a day when Ajaz ruled with his left-arm spin.
“Personally I think it’s one of the greatest cricketing days of my life and probably will always be,” Ajaz told reporters.
“From the team perspective it’s obviously tough. But we still have more Test cricket left. We got to make sure we front up tomorrow and scrap as much as we can. We are on the backfoot, but we got to come back here tomorrow and make sure we work as hard as possible to see how we can turn this game around or eke out something special.”
Ajaz, who took four wickets on day one including Pujara and skipper Virat Kohli for ducks, rattled India in the first session with wickets in successive balls to be on a hat-trick.
Ajaz sent back Agarwal, who started the day on 120 with India on 221-4, to break a 67-run stand with Axar. The wily spinner soon got Axar lbw and wrapped up the Indian innings with Siraj his final scalp as the Kiwi players surrounded their hero with hugs and applause. He sent down 47.5 overs in four spells out of a Kiwi total of 109.5 and bowled almost unchanged on day two. Ajaz returned figures of 10-119. In the New Zealand innings Siraj struck early to send back Will Young for four.
SCOREBOARD
India 1st innings (overnight 221-4)
M. Agarwal c Blundell b Ajaz 150
S. Gill c Taylor b Ajaz 44
C. Pujara b Ajaz 0
V. Kohli lbw b Ajaz 0
S. Iyer c Blundell b Ajaz 18
W. Saha lbw Ajaz 27
R. Ashwin b Ajaz 0
A. Patel lbw b Ajaz 52
J. Yadav c Ravindra b Ajaz 12
U. Yadav not out 0
M. Siraj c Ravindra b Ajaz 4
Extras (b13, lb5) 18
Total (all out, 109.5 overs) 325
Fall of wickets: 1-80 (Gill), 2-80 (Pujara), 3-80 (Kohli), 4-160 (Iyer), 5-224 (Saha), 6-224 (Ashwin), 7-291 (Agarwal), 8-316 (Axar), 9-321 (Jayant Yadav, 109.2 ov), 10-325 (Siraj)
Bowling: Southee 22-6-43-0, Jamieson 12-3-36-0, Patel 47.5-12-119-10, Somerville 19-0-80-0, Ravindra 4-0-20-0, Mitchell 5-3-9-0
New Zealand 1st innings
T. Latham c Iyer b Siraj 10
W. Young c Kohli b Siraj 4
D. Mitchell lbw b Patel 8
R. Taylor b Siraj 1
H. Nicholls b Ashwin 7
T. Blundell c Pujara b Ashwin 8
R. Ravindra c Kohli b J. Yadav 4
K. Jamieson c Iyer b Patel 17
T. Southee c sub (SA Yadav) b Ashwin 0
W. Somerville c Siraj b Ashwin 0
A. Patel not out 0
Extras (lb1, nb2) 3
Total (all out, 28.1 overs) 62
Fall of wickets: 1-10 (Young), 2-15 (Latham), 3-17 (Taylor), 4-27 (Mitchell), 5-31 (Nicholls), 6-38 (Ravindra), 7-53 (Blundell), 8-53 (Southee), 9-62 (Somerville), 10-62 (Jamieson)
Bowling: Umesh 5-2-7-0, Siraj 4-0-19-3, Axar 9.1-3-14-2, Ashwin 8-2-8-4 (nb1), Jayant 2-0-13-1
India 2nd innings
M. Agarwal not out 38
C. Pujara not out 29
Extras (lb2) 2
Total (no loss, 21 overs) 69
Bowling: Southee 5-0-14-0, Ajaz 9-1-35-0, Jamieson 4-2-5-0, Somerville 2-0-9-0, Ravindra 1-0-4-0
New Zealand’s Ajaz Patel celebrates with his teammates after taking the wicket of India’s Mohamed Siraj during the second day of the second Test at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai yesterday. (AFP)
