Kuldeep Yadav’s spin magic makes him fastest Indian to claim 50 T20I wickets

Kuldeep became the quickest bowler to reach 50 wickets in men's T20Is for India after featuring in 30 matches

Georgetown: India spinner Kuldeep Yadav scripted a major record in the first innings of the third T20I against West Indies at the Providence Stadium in Guyana on Tuesday.

Kuldeep became the quickest bowler to reach 50 wickets in men’s T20Is for India after featuring in 30 matches. The previous record holder of claming fastest 50 wickets in T20I’s for India was Yuzvendra Chahal. Sri Lanka’s ‘mystery spinner’ Ajantha Mendis holds the overall record of claiming fastest 50 wickets in T20I.

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He achieved the remarkable feat in 26 matches. Mendis also holds the record of reaching 50 wickets in fewest ball (600). Coming to the match, Kuldeep bagged three wickets while Axar Patel and Mukesh Kumar scalped one wicket each. For West Indies, Brandon King scored the highest with 42 off 42 deliveries while Rovman Powell played a crucial knock of unbeaten 40 runs in 19 balls. Opted to bat first, West Indies got off to a fine start as their openers Kyle Mayers and Brandon King kept piling runs at regular intervals against Indian bowlers.

However, Axar Patel’s spin was proven to be too good for Mayers as the batter was dismissed for 25 runs in the 8th over of the game. The right-handed batter Johnson Charles then came out to bat. Kuldeep Yadav then started to spin his web around the West Indies batter as he dismissed Charles for 14 runs. The left-handed batter Nicholas Pooran then came out to bat at the crease.

Pooran in blazing form hammered Kuldeep for 13 runs with the help of four and six runs.

Kuldeep in the 15th over of the game struck twice to dismiss Pooran and well-set batter Brandon King. Pooran went back to the pavilion after scoring 20 while King was dismissed after scoring 42 runs.

Mukesh Kumar in the 18th over bagged the wicket of Shimron Hetmyer for 9 runs. In the 19th over of the game, Rovman Powell opened his hands and smoked Arshdeep Singh for 17 runs single-headedly with the help of two huge sixes. In the last over, Powell smashed a six off Mukesh’s over and helped his team post a competitive score of 159/5 on board.