New Zealand’s Ajaz Patel became the first
bowler of the 21st century to claim cricket’s magic figure, a perfect 10 wickets in an innings, against India in the second Test at Wankhede, Mumbai on
Saturday. In doing so, Patel has become only the third bowler to take 10 wickets in an innings in the history of Test cricket after Jim Laker of England in 1956 and
Anil Kumble of India in 1999.

The left-arm spinner of Indian heritage
also became the first from New Zealand to claim all 10 wickets in an innings
of a Test match. It took 22 years for a bowler to achieve the
remarkable feat after Anil Kumble.

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For years till 1999, Laker’s 10 for 53 against
Australia in the 1956 Manchester Test was thought to be unachievable. But it
was only Laker who might have thought that a 10-wicket haul in an innings was
not impossible to achieve. Before taking 10 wickets in the second innings, he
took nine in the first innings in the fourth Ashes Test.

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Kumble foxed Pakistan at Kotla

But Anil Kumble stunned everyone with his
straight, skidding deliveries in the 1999 Delhi Test against Pakistan, busting the myth that taking 10 wickets in an innings was a feat impossible to repeat.

In a
high-octane clash, played in the backdrop of the Kargil war at Feroz Shah Kotla,
now Arun Jaitley Stadium, Anil Kumble became only the second bowler after Jim Laker to claim all 10 wickets in an innings. Kumble’s 10 for 74
in 26.3 overs led India to their biggest Test victory against Pakistan, a
remarkable 212-run win to level the iconic series 1-1.

India had lost the first Test of the
two-match series at Chennai by 12 runs, and the hosts were in a must-win
situation before the Delhi Test.

Indian bowlers bowled exceptionally well to
bundle out Pakistan for 172 after posting 252 in the first innings. Leading on,
the hosts rode on half-centuries from Sadgopan Ramesh (96) and Sourav Ganguly
(62*) to post a target of 420 for Pakistan.

Chasing 420 with almost two days to spare,
on a spinning track, Pakistan got off to a modest start with Shahid Afridi and
Saeed Anwar opening the innings. Anwar and Afridi hammered away Indian bowlers
as they shared a 101 runs partnership before Kumble chipped in to stop the
carnage.

In the 25th over of Pakistani innings,
Indian wicketkeeper Nayan Mongia took a brilliant catch to dismiss Shahid
Afridi while VVS Laxman grabbed another at slip to bring Pakistan down to 101
for 2 in two deliveries. After that, Pakistan could never make a recovery.

Ijaz Ahmed and Mohammad Yousuf had no
answers to Kumble’s flipper and were caught leg-before; Inzamam-ul-Haq chopped
on and Saleem Malik bamboozled.

‘Perfect
ten was a destiny’

Commenting on his 10 wickets haul in 2014 in an interview with BCCI, Kumble said, “A ‘Perfect Ten’ isn’t something you set out to achieve as a cricketer”, but “I would attribute the events of 7th February 1999 to destiny.”

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“When I picked up my six wickets, I
came back after the tea break – as I had bowled continuously from lunch to tea.
At the break, I sat down and thought to myself, here is a chance for me to
better my previous best in Test, which was a seven-wicket haul. I went out
again and then I took seven, and then eight and nine happened in two
deliveries. That is when perhaps when it dawned on me and more on my teammates
that I have the chance to pick up all 10,” Kumble recalled.

Kumble announced his retirement from
international cricket in 2008 and finished with 619 wickets in the longest
format of the game. He is India’s leading wicket-taker in Test cricket.
Overall, he is the fourth-highest wicket-taker in Test cricket, only behind Sri
Lanka’s Muttiah Muralitharan (800), Australia’s Shane Warne (708) and England’s
James Anderson (632).