In his historic 100th Test on Saturday, Ravichandran Ashwin overcame the renowned Muttiah Muralitharan, creating history.
In his 100th Test on Sunday, leading off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin created history by breaking Muttiah Muralitharan’s global record and recording the best bowling stats in the historic match. On Day 3 of the fifth and final Test of the series in Dharamsala, Ben Foakes was dismissed by Ashwin, setting a new record, for the most wickets in his 100th Test. Ashwin finished with stats of 9/128 in his 100th Test, while Muralitharan finished with figures of 9/141.
In the opening Test match between India and England in Dharamsala, Ashwin had an outstanding performance, taking four wickets to help his team finish the visitors’ innings at 218. Ashwin did what he does best with the ball as India entered the field on the third day, despite having a dismal game with the bat (a duck in the first innings).
Ashwin made an immediate impression with the ball, taking Ben Duckett for just two runs in his opening over, which was only the second of the innings. Ashwin destroyed Duckett’s stumps with a spectacular ball, giving India an early lead. Not too long afterward, he fired the volatile Zak Crawley.
Ashwin struck again in the tenth over, luring Ollie Pope with a skilfully bowled short delivery that caught him off guard as he tried to play a sweep shot.
When Ashwin removed English captain Ben Stokes in the final over before lunch, it was yet another historic moment in his career. Ashwin delivers a cunning slider with two balls left before lunch. When Stokes opens the gate in an attempt to defend with a powerful forward lunge, the ball crashes into the middle and off stump.
With that wicket, Ashwin passed the record for most Indian wickets in the 100th Test (7) held by Anil Kumble and Kapil Dev. Shortly after the second session began, Ashwin claimed his 36th five-wicket haul, removing wicketkeeper-battler Ben Foakes for eight runs, using both his middle and leg stumps.
Interestingly, Kumble had also taken five wickets in the second innings of his historic match against Sri Lanka (2005), therefore he became the second Indian player to take a fifer in his 100th Test. Of greater significance, Ashwin eclipsed Kumble in the record for the most five-wicket scores by an Indian in Test history; the former leg-spinner had ended his career with 35 fifers.