R Ashwin and, on his comeback, Washington Sundar shared all 10 wickets on the first day of the Pune Test match against New Zealand.
New Zealand were bowled out for 259 after Tom Latham won the toss and opted to bat in the second Test of the three-match series. New Zealand were, at various points, 76-1, 138-2, and 197-3, but Sundar (7-59) took the last seven wickets to bowl them out.
Sundar’s figures were the best by an Indian spinner other than R Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja since Anil Kumble claimed 7-48 against Australia at Chennai in 2004/05. Even among seamers, Irfan Pathan equalled Sundar’s figures (against Zimbabwe at Harare in 2005) but no one went past them.
Sundar’s figures were also the best at the Maharashtra Cricket Association Stadium in Gahunje, Pune. He went past Kerry O’Keefe’s twin 6-35s in 2016/17. Umesh Yadav (4-32 against Australia in the same Test) used to hold the record for India.
Sundar was drafted into the squad after India lost the first Test, at Bengaluru, by eight wickets. At Pune, India left out Kuldeep Yadav, and picked Washington ahead of Axar Patel. Here, his spell came after Ashwin (3-64), his senior off-spin-bowling all-rounder at Tamil Nadu and India, claimed the first three wickets of the innings. Incidentally, Ashwin’s best Test figures are also 7-59.
This was the first time in Test cricket history that all ten wickets in the first innings of a men’s Test match have fallen to off-spinners and the 25th time spinners of any “genre” have done the same. The 26th instance took place minutes later, at the Rawalpindi Cricket Stadium, where Sajid Khan (6-128), Noman Ali (3-88), and Zahid Mehmood (1-44) did the same for Pakistan against England.
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