Axar Patel, India’s left-arm spinner, ran through the New Zealand middle-order to register his fifth 5-wicket haul on the third day of the first Test at Green Park, Kanpur, on Saturday. He achieved the feat in only his fourth Test match. Courtesy of his performance, India not only got back from a precarious position but was also able to bowl out the visitors for 296, thus having a 49-run lead.

His first victim was veteran Ross Taylor. That was early in the day. Following which he gobbled up the wickets of Henry Nicholls, Tom Latham, Tom Blundell and Tim Southee.

Taylor was done with the help of a slower delivery. The ball took an outside edge and nestled in the gloves of the wicketkeeper. Nicholls, on the other hand, missed a sweep to get trapped leg before.

There was no stopping Axar. He then went on to pick the prized wicket of Tom Latham, who was stumped on 95. Shortly after, he cleaned up Southee and Blundell.

Now, he has the joint-second most five-fors in an individual’s first four Tests alongside Englishman Tom Richardson and Australia’s Rodney Hogg. Australia’s Charlie Turner leads the charts with six fifers in his first four Test matches.

For Axar, this is the sixth successive instance when he has taken more than four wickets in an innings. No other Indian bowler has managed to do so more than four consecutive innings. These are his figures in Test cricket: 2/40, 5/60, 6/38, 5/32, 4/68, 5/48, 5/62.

Axar has been terrific since he donned the India whites at the start of the year and now has as many as 32 wickets in just three and half Tests. The five-for was his fifth having already got four in the three Tests against England.

However, he will cherish this one a bit more considering that the track was not as diabolical as the ones in the England series (second Test in Chennai and the Pink Test in Ahmedabad).

At stumps, the hosts were 14 for 1 after losing Shubman Gill (1) for the second time to Kyle Jamieson, who again found a gaping hole between his bat and pad.

With the deliveries keeping wickedly low, New Zealand‘s chances of fighting it out in the fourth innings will be pretty low unless skipper Kane Williamson produces one of his steady knocks.