Saurashtra skipper Jaydev Unadkat rewrote the record for the most wickets by a pacer in a single Ranji Trophy season when he powered his team to the final with a spell of 7 for 56 in the fourth innings of the semifinal against Gujarat on Wednesday.
Unadkat finished with overall match figures of 10 for 142 and thus took his season tally to 65 wickets along with restricting Gujarat 92 runs short of the target.
It was Parthiv Patel’s wicket that helped the 28-year-old to go past Karnataka’s Dodda Ganesh’s record of most wickets by a pacer in a single Ranji Trophy season. Patel’s wicket took Unadkat to 63 wickets which was one more than Ganesh’s tally of 62 scalps which came way back in the 1998/99 season.
MOST WICKETS BY PACERS IN A SINGLE RANJI SEASON
65* – JAYDEV UNADKAT (SAU)| 2019-20
62 – Dodda Ganesh (KAR) | 1998-99
57 – Ranadeb Bose (BEN) | 2006-07
52 – Harshal Patel (HAR) | 2019-20
51 – Ishwar Chaudhary (SIKK) | 2018-19
Unadkat’s wickets this season came at an excellent average and a sensational strike-rate of 12.16 and 25.6 respectively. Not only that, he registered seven five-fers in this season as well which gives an idea about his big match performances.
The season isn’t over yet for Unadkat. He will lead Saurashtra out for one final time in this season in the Grand Finale against Bengal on March 9. And he will also have a shot rewriting the record for most wickets by any bowler in a single season of the Ranji Trophy. The record is currently being held by Bihar’s Ashutosh Aman who claimed 68 wickets during the 2018/19 season.