Ashwin breaks Dennis Lillee’s record of fastest 300 Test wickets

Australian fast bowling legend Lillee had reached the milestone in 56 Test matches way back in 1981 and it took 36 years for another bowler to eclipse the record

Sports News : India off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin became the fastest bowler to reach the milestone of 300 Test wickets on Monday in his 54th match, breaking Dennis Lillees record during India’s win over Sri Lanka in the second Test.

Australian fast bowling legend Lillee had reached the milestone in 56 Test matches way back in 1981 and it took 36 years for another bowler to eclipse the record. Ashwin is also ahead of some of the illustrious names, who had completed the milestone in quick time.

Among them are Muttiah Muralitharan (58 Tests), Richard Hadlee, Malcolm Marshall and Dale Steyn (61 Tests each).

Ashwin is only the fifth Indian bowler to complete a career 300 wickets in Test cricket behind Anil Kumble (619), Kapil Dev (434), Harbhajan Singh (417) and Zaheer Khan (311).

Brief Score : India Wins 2nd Test Against Lanka By An Innings And 239 Runs

The illustrious trio of Bishan Singh Bedi (266), Bhagwat Chandrasekhar (242) and Erapalli Prasanna (189) are way behind Ashwin.

“I really hope I can go on to double these 300 wickets, I have only played 50 Tests. It’s not easy bowling spin, it looks like you’re just ambling up. But there’s a lot behind it. We’ve bowled a lot of overs, me and Jaddu (Ravindra Jadeja) . And the break has helped, I’m a lot more fresher now comparatively,” Ashwin said.

“The carom ball was a good ball, I haven’t bowled many of those in the last 24 months,” he said referring to the ball with which he got his milestone.

“I have worked on different releases for it and now that we are travelling, I think I needed that extra bit. It has been a longer break than I’ve been used to over the last few years. But I did have a good stint in Worcester and I learnt a lot of things. As you can see, I’ve worked on different loadings, different actions. It’s also helped my patience, wickets haven’t come quickly.”

Click to Read → Ashwin 300 Test Wickets

India thump Bangladesh by 208 runs in one-off Test

Captain Kohli, who scored 242 in two innings, was declared the man-of-the-match

 

Latest News - It was a comprehensive show by Virat Kohli-led side. They put up a mammoth total of 687-6 declared in their innings before bowling out Bangladesh for 388. Then, India scored at a rapid pace in their second innings before declaring at 159-4, setting a target of 459 for the visitors.

Captain Kohli, who scored 204 and 38 in the two innings respectively, was declared the man-of-the-match.

Following the win, Kohli's side has now captured four consecutive Test series. They won away against the West Indies before prevailing over New Zealand and England.

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IND  687/6 decl,  159/4 decl

BAN 388,  250-all out (100.3 Ovs)   (Scorecard)

Ravichandran Ashwin regains number one spot in Test rankings

Indian off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin on Wednesday reclaimed the number one spot in Test rankings for bowlers following a career-best match haul of 13 for 140 in the third Test against New Zealand in Indore.

Ashwin, who was named man of the series after he finished with 27 wickets in a 3-0 sweep by India, now has 220 wickets, the most by any bowler after 39 Tests.

Ranked third before the final Test in Indore, Ashwin, who also holds the top position in rankings for all-rounders, has leapfrogged pace bowlers James Anderson and Dale Steyn to attain a career-best rating of 900 points.

Ashwin, who finished the 2015 year-end rankings as the number-one bowler and was also at the top briefly in July this year, has joined a select band to have touched a rating of 900 points since 2000, the others being Muttiah Muralitharan, Glenn McGrath, Vernon Philander, Dale Steyn and Shaun Pollock.

In the rankings for Test batsmen, India's middle-order batsman Ajinkya Rahane has attained a career-best sixth rank with scores of 188 and 23 not out

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Ashwin takes six as India inch closer towards 'Whitewash'

A splendid six-wicket effort from premier strike bowler Ravichandran Ashwin saw India maintain their stranglehold on New Zealand and remain firmly on course for a 3-0 series whitewash at the end of third day's play in the final Test match in Indore.

Riding on Ashwin's brilliant figures of 6/81, India bowled out New Zealand for 299 thereby taking a healthy first-innings lead of 258 runs.

Virat Kohli, however, did not enforce the follow-on and India were 18/0 at stumps increasing their overall lead to 276 runs.

Veteran opener Gautam Gambhir was retired hurt on six after sustaining a shoulder injury going for a second run. At stumps, Cheteshwar Pujara (1) and M Vijay (11) were at the crease for the home team.

Related: India presented with ICC Test Championship mace

The day belonged to Ashwin, who used the bowlers' rough brilliantly by operating from the pavilion end to get his 20th five-wicket haul in his 39th Test.

The off-spinner, who grabbed 10 wickets in the series opener at Kanpur and four in the second match at Kolkata, also ran out two batsmen off his own bowling.

His spin partner Ravindra Jadeja accounted for the other two wickets in the visitors' innings.

With two days left in the game, India, who won the first two Tests by huge margins, looked well-poised to score another victory for a clean sweep of the series.

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MATCH DETAILS

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Toss - India
Series - India won the 3-match series 3-0

Player of the match - R Ashwin (India)
Player of the series - R Ashwin (India)

Umpires - HDPK Dharmasena (Sri Lanka) and BNJ Oxenford (Australia)
TV umpire - C Shamshuddin
Match referee - DC Boon (Australia)
Reserve umpire - Nitin Menon

Close of play

• Sat, 8 Oct - day 1 - India 1st innings 267/3 (V Kohli 103*, AM Rahane 79*, 90 ov)
• Sun, 9 Oct - day 2 - New Zealand 1st innings 28/0 (MJ Guptill 17*, TWM Latham 6*, 9 ov)
• Mon, 10 Oct - day 3 - India 2nd innings 18/0 (M Vijay 11*, CA Pujara 1*, 6 ov)
• Tue, 11 Oct - day 4 - New Zealand 2nd innings 153 (44.5 ov) - end of match

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