Vidarbha pacer Shrikant Wagh grabs all 10 wickets in Stokesley’s win over Middlesbrough
Shrikant Wagh took all the wickets of Middlesbrough and helped Stokesley Cricket Club post a record win during a league match of NYSD Cricket league. Appreciating Wagh’s heroics his team-mate, James Weighell revealed that there was a period where Wagh looked like taking wickets on every ball.
When Shrikant Wagh burst on to the scene in 2005, he resembled Irfan Pathan. Apart from curly hair like his idol, they have many things in common - both are fighters, they had injury-ridden careers, and both are more than capable batsmen.
However, Wagh, who was the Vidarbha spearhead just two years ago, has surpassed Pathan in one count. The Baroda all-rounder had come close to taking all ten wickets in an innings during the Under-19 Asia Cup in 2003-04 when he took nine wickets against Bangladesh. But left-arm pacer Wagh, who has been playing for Stokesley Cricket Club, has gone a step ahead on Saturday, taking all ten Middlesbrough wickets during a league match of North Yorkshire & South Durham (NYSD) Cricket League, which is England Cricket Board's
Wagh's Stokesley Club teammate James Weighell, who also plays for Durham County, was mesmerized by his fellow fast bowler's 10-wicket feat.
"It's the first time I have witnessed a player taking all 10 wickets in a single
"He bowled a three-over period where he took seven wickets. I was standing at the second slip and felt every ball was going to be a wicket during that spell! It was a frighteningly good spell and I was very happy to be at slip and not batting for the other side. Congratulations to Shree, it was well and truly deserved," he said.
Wagh has been one of the top bowlers in the NYSD League, having taken 33 wickets at an impressive average of 11.49 and a strike rate of 24.76.
"It's a great achievement. To take ten wickets in any form of the game at any level is a very big thing. These things don't happen every day. He should be proud of this and keep working hard to achieve bigger things," former Indian pacer Subroto Banerjee, who was Vidarbha's bowling coach last year, was quoted as saying by PTI on Sunday.
The achievement came just at the right time for the Buldhana lad, who has been trying to get his place back in the Vidarbha side after injury-ridden last couple of years. Wagh was an automatic choice in the Vidarbha playing eleven just a year ago. However, untimely injuries and indifferent form opened the opportunity for youngsters like Rajneesh Gurbani and Lalit Yadav. They grabbed it with both hands and were instrumental in the historic last
"He is coming back into his own. He bowled extremely well during the Central Zone Twenty20 and Vijay Hazare One-dayers. His ability was never in doubt. He bowls with a decent pace and swings the ball, and that's a great combination. If he bowls like that, you never know where he can reach," Banerjee said.