"It is not easy to take 10 wickets even against the local team in your colony" - Harbhajan Singh lauds Ajaz Patel's historic feat 

Legendary off-spinner Harbhajan Singh has reiterated that Ajaz Patel taking 10 wickets in an innings was more about destiny than other factors usually associated with cricket. The Kiwi left-arm orthodox registered historic figures of 10 for 119 against India in the first innings of the Mumbai Test on Saturday.

Ajaz Patel became only the third bowler – after Jim Laker and Anil Kumble – to take all 10 wickets in an innings in international cricket. In an exclusive interview with Sportskeeda, Harbhajan Singh opined that Ajaz will be a part of cricketing folklore regardless of the number of Tests he goes on to play.

“It’s a very, very big moment in cricket. It is a very rare thing in cricket, to achieve such a feat is outstanding. I wrote in my tweet as well, that I want to just stand and clap. Unbelievable, this is history. Whether he plays 100 games or 50 games or 20 games in his career, but he has already scripted history,” Harbhajan said, almost falling short of words.

Tthe first Indian to take a hat-trick in Test cricket, Harbhajan Singh stated that not only are such feats rare but nobody can plan to accomplish them.

“It is not easy to take 10 wickets even against the local team in your colony. You can’t think and do it. Don’t compare oppositions, pitch, anything, because they don’t really matter. Nobody thinks of taking a hat-trick, it just happens. He didn’t think of taking 10 wickets, but it happened. This has happened just thrice and cricket is being played for so many years,” Harbhajan remarked.

While England’s Jim Laker took 19 wickets in Test No. 428, Kumble’s 10 for 74 came in Test No. 1443. And the ongoing India-New Zealand game is the 2438th match in cricket’s 144-year history, which means the probability of an international 10-for happening is almost once in every 1000 Tests.

Harbhajan Singh added that Ajaz Patel, who was interestingly born in Mumbai, had it written in the stars because these once-in-a-lifetime records happen only if they are meant to.

“It doesn’t matter that if someone has played 100 Tests. It can very well happen for someone who is playing just his second Test. So this is a very unpredictable kind of a thing – nobody can plan to take 10 wickets, it can’t be planned to take even 2 wickets for that matter. So if this has to happen, it will, and these are things which are written for you. It is one of those things which is meant to happen to you, and it’s a really big achievement,” Harbhajan, who took 711 wickets in 103 Tests, 236 ODIs and 28 T20Is, explained.

Not often does a player script history in a game where their team gets a thrashing at the hands of the opposition. India are comfortably poised to win the series 1-0, but Harbhajan had no qualms in admitting that Ajaz Patel’s performance will overshadow all the other happenings in the Test.

“The result of the team doesn’t matter, they will lose the match. If India had enforced the follow-on, then the match would have been wrapped up by Tea on Day 3. But this will remain a memorable thing for him, as an individual and even for those who played alongside him. To take 10 wickets in an innings is a massive thing in itself,” Harbhajan exclaimed.

After India scored 325, the Kiwis were bundled out for the lowest men’s Test score ever (62) on Indian soil. Ajaz Patel bowled 47.5 overs in the first innings – studded with marathon spells – before taking four of the seven wickets to fall in the hosts’ second essay.

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“I was removed from the other end & Srinath was asked to bowl wide” – Harbhajan Singh recounts Kumble’s 10 for 74

Anil Kumble exults after dismissing Wasim Akram as his 10th victim in the historic Kotla Test

Harbhajan Singh was on the field when his teammate Anil Kumble took all 10 wickets against Pakistan at Delhi’s Feroz Shah Kotla in February 1999. After Wasim Akram’s boys were reduced to 198 for 8 in the fourth innings, India left no stone unturned to give Kumble a shot at a perfect 10, including taking Harbhajan off the attack and making pacer Javagal Srinath bowl wide.

“When he took 8 wickets, then it was like he should get all 10. Srinath was asked to bowl wide, because there was more chance of wickets falling to a spinner bowling from the other end. So I was removed from the other end and Srinath was asked to bowl wide, which was the right move. When a bowler has taken 8 wickets and he has a great chance to take all 10, then why not?” Harbhajan Singh told Sportskeeda.

While it was VVS Laxman who took a sharp catch at forward short-leg to dismiss Wasim Akram as Kumble’s 10th scalp, it was two-Test-old Rachin Ravindra who took the final catch – a skier at mid-on.

Asked if there is any added pressure on the fielders if a bowler is nearing a rare feat, Harbhajan Singh stated that there is pressure to catch every ball. However, Harbhajan pointed out that anxiety mounts on the bowler, who hopes his team-mate quickly sneaks in overs from the other end.

“The pressure on a fielder is to catch, if there is an opportunity. So whether he is taking the 10th wicket or the very first, challenge remains the same, it’s not like there is any change in pressure. But yes, as a bowler, when you have taken 8 wickets and you know you have a chance to take all 10, then you hope the over from the other end gets done real fast. There is this anxiety to get the ball in your own hand,” Harbhajan said.

There can be an argument that Ajaz Patel was slightly aided by the fact that the rest of the Kiwi bowlers were rather toothless. Ajaz bowled more than twice as many overs as Tim Southee, who sent down the second-most overs with 22.

Harbhajan, though, was back to square one, reiterating that the left-arm spinner was simply destined to claim all the wickets – be it because of others not bowling enough wicket-taking deliveries or catches going down.

“It’s not like Tim Southee is ineffective as a bowler, he took 8 wickets in Kanpur, on a wicket which didn’t have any bounce. Tim Southee could have gotten wickets, Mohammed Siraj came on to bowl and he got 3 wickets. So there are certain things which are written for you. I believe that he had to take 10 wickets and it would have happened by any means. Whether fellow bowlers took wickets or no, opportunities might have been spurned for others, but any sort of opportunity for Ajaz was grabbed,” Harbhajan elaborated.

When No. 11 Mohammed Siraj walked out to bat, everyone at the Wankhede was on the edge of their seats in anticipation. And as the India pacer inside-edged a full delivery that trickled to the boundary, it became more imminent. But should he have simply blocked the remaining two deliveries left in the over? Harbhajan Singh doesn't think so.

“What is the point? He has to play his natural game. If he would have saved that over and the final wicket fell to someone else, what kind of an achievement would have been to deny someone a 10-wicket haul? He was right, this is how he plays his game. If he was playing for a draw, then it was different. But he saw the ball and went for his shot, which he didn’t get right,” Harbhajan concluded.

The last time a player took all 10 wickets in an innings in a first-class game was former India seamer Debasis Mohanty, who achieved the feat while playing for East Zone against South Zone in the 2001-02 Duleep Trophy.