India pacer Arshdeep Singh broke a national record on Wednesday with his performance against South Africa in the third T20I.
India were inserted to bat first by Proteas skipper Aiden Markram, and lost Sanju Samson early on. But their innings was powered by Tilak Varma (107*), with Abhishek Sharma (50) also chipping in to help them post 219-6 in Centurion.
After the first over of the second innings, the match was delayed briefly due to a swarm of flying ants disturbing players and umpires alike. Soon after the resumption, Arshdeep Singh removed Ryan Rickelton, and Varun Chakravarthy got rid of Reeza Hendricks within the powerplay.
South Africa were always behind the required run rate, and kept losing wickets at regular intervals. But the match was more or less in the bag for India when Arshdeep returned to get rid of the dangerous Heinrich Klaasen in the 18th over.
But that wicket was significant not just in the context of the match, but also for the bowler.
Arshdeep Singh becomes India's highest seam-bowling wicket taker in T20I cricket
It was Arshdeep's 91st wicket in T20 internationals, meaning he went past Bhuvneshwar Kumar's tally of 90 to become the leading wicket-taker for India in the format, among seam bowlers.
His wickets have come in just 59 matches, and Arshdeep's strike rate of 13.3 balls per wicket is the best of any Indian pacer with at least 20 T20I wickets. The left-armer is barely two years into his international career, having debuted in November 2022. Arshdeep has also played eight ODIs, but is yet to play Test cricket.
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He has also moved into second place for the most T20I wickets for India in men's T20Is. Leg spinner Yuzvendra Chahal is first, with 96 wickets. In all likelihood, Arshdeep will become the first Indian man to take 100 T20I wickets. Off spinner Deepti Sharma is the first Indian, and she currently has 135 wickets in the format.
Arshdeep finished with 3-37 in the match, taking his tally to 92 wickets as India secured a win by 11 runs.
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