cricket

Updated: Dec 29, 2018 19:07 IST

It has been a good year for the Indian fast bowlers and the trio of Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Shami and Ishant Sharma etched their name in the history books when they broke a 34-year-old record during Day 4 of the third Test match between India and Australia in Melbourne.

The trio of Bumrah, Shami and Ishant has picked up 131 wickets between themselves in 2018 and as a result, they broke the 34-year-old record which was previously held by the legendary West Indies trio of Joel Garner, Michael Holding and Malcolm Marshall.

The Windies greats had taken 130 wickets in 1984. They are followed by the South African pace trio of Morne Morkel, Makhaya Ntini and Dale Steyn who managed to take 123 wickets in 2008.

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Among the 131 total dismissals, Bumrah finished with 46 wickets in nine Tests, Shami picked the similar number of wickets from 12 matches, while Ishant finished with 39 from 11.

Earlier, the Indian bowling combination of nine regular bowlers and one part-time bowler combined to break their 39-year-old record. In 2018, the bowlers scalped a record 257 wickets in 14 wickets, hence overhauling the tally from the year 1979 when the bowlers picked 237 wickets from 17 matches.

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India moved within two wickets of an emphatic victory in the third test after reducing Australia to 258 for eight at the close of day four on Saturday as the home side’s batsmen suffered a familiar spate of failures.

Having set a mammoth victory target of 399 shortly before lunch, Virat Kohli’s team attacked with precision and intensity to leave Australia on life support at the end of a muggy and overcast day at the Melbourne Cricket Ground.

(With agency inputs)