What it means to be taking 10 wickets in an innings
There are rare occasions when you would term cricket as anything but a batsman’s game. Getting ten wickets in an innings is one of those moments. As Gavaskar and other commentators put it during the game, cricket is being played since the 1850s, and yet there have been only three players in the history of the game to achieve this incredible feat. If you have been lucky enough, you would have been alive to witness all three occasions. For my part, I have seen Kumble get a 10-fer with a bandaged head, and now Ajaz Patel. So what does it mean to get a 10-fer in a batsman’s game? Imagine getting to a 300 or a 350 single-handedly on difficult conditions. Imagine getting a man-of-the-match as a bowler despite there being a hundred scored by a batsman. A lot depends on the nature and surface of the pitch as well. The conditions have to favourable. Even then, it’s no mean feat. Take the other spinners for instance, Will Sommerville and Rachin Ravindra seemed to be bowling on a green surface...