During India's crushing win over Bangladesh in Chennai, R Ashwin equalled Shane Warne for number of five-wicket hauls in Test cricket. Here are the players with the most in the history of the format.
At the MA Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai, Bangladesh had chosen to bowl first on day one (September 19) of the first Test between the teams. They were excellent in the first two sessions, reducing India to 144-6.
But thereafter, it was all India as R Ashwin (113) and Ravindra Jadeja (86) put on 199 for the seventh wicket and helped India post 376. The home side's pacers then did the job to skittle Bangladesh for 149, before centuries from Shubman Gill (119*) and Rishabh Pant (109) helped set Bangladesh 515 for victory.
In the fourth innings, Bangladesh put up a brief fight but eventually succumbed as Ashwin, on his home ground, took 6-88 to bowl his side to a 280-run win. In doing so, he equalled Shane Warne's tally of five-wicket hauls in Test cricket.
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This was Ashwin's 37th five-wicket haul in Test matches. The only spinner with more than him and Warne is Muthiah Muralidaran, who has a staggering 67 to his name. Unsurprisingly, these three – Muralidaran, Warne and Ashwin are the top three for five-wicket hauls overall as well (both spinners and pace bowlers).
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Before this match, Ashwin had been level, on 36 five-wicket hauls, with the best pace bowler in this respect; New Zealand's Richard Hadlee. Two more spinners occupy the fourth and fifth spots on the list. India's Anil Kumble has 35 five-wicket hauls, and Sri Lanka's Rangana Herath has 34.
The only other player with more than 30 five-wicket hauls is the recently-retired James Anderson, with 32. Glenn McGrath (29), Ian Botham (27), Dale Steyn (26), Harbhajan Singh (25) and Wasim Akram (25) are th others with 25 or more.
From an all-round perspective, this was match was another feather in Ashwin's cap as he managed to score a century and take a five-wicket haul in the same match for the fourth time in his career. Only Ian Botham (5) has done it more times. Between 1932 and 2010, the feat had been achieved by an Indian just twice but since 2011, it has been done six times (Ravindra Jadeja has done so twice, in addition to Ashwin's four).
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