After the best bowling performances of Ashish Nehra in a previous article it is time to talk about a living legend of not just Indian cricket but World Cricket in Anil Kumble. Anil Kumble is the leading wicket taker for India in tests and ODIs combined with over 950 international Wickets to his name. Anil Kumble has played the game for 18 years from 1990-2008 and what a glorious 18 years it has been. We will talk about the records of this great player below.
Anil Kumble has played 132 Test Matches for India and In those Matches he has picked 619 Test wickets in which he has taken 35 Five wicket hauls and 8 times he has taken 10 wickets in a match and once he has taken all 10 wickets in a test innings. In the ODI format he has played 271 ODI Matches for India In which he has taken 337 wickets and he has 2 Five wicket hauls in ODIs aa well. He is in many people’s opinion the greatest match winner that India has ever seen. So, let’s see the Top 5 Best bowling Performances of Anil Kumble.
10/74 vs Pakistan (1999)
Out of all the legendary performances in the career of Anil Kumble this will be the one that will be the best ever because of the sheer enormity of this achievement so much so that in 145 years of the game only 3 times has a bowler taken all 10 wickets in an innings. It was against Pakistan in the fourth Innings as well and he single handedly won India the match and in 26.3 overs and only giving away 74 runs took all 10 wickets in the Pakistan Innings. It will forever be etched in history.
Also Read | Best Zaheer Khan bowling performances
4/69 and 7/59 vs Sri Lanka (1994)
I have included this performance because this was where he took more than 10 wickets in a test match early on in his career and in the first innings he took 4 Wickets of the Sri Lankan Batting innings and gave away only 69 wins and Sri Lanka were bowled out for 218 runs and In the second batting innings of Sri Lanka he got even better as he got 7 wickets and only giving away 59 runs and ripped apart the Sri Lankan batting line-up and India won the match by an innings and 119 runs.
Also Read | Best Harbhajan Singh bowling performances
8/141 and 4/138 vs Australia (2004)
This is absolutely one of the best performances in the career of Anil Kumble as it came in the famous Sydney Test Match in 2004 where Sachin Tendulkar made 241* and Anil Kumble bowled almost 47 overs and giving away 141 runs took 8 of the Australian wickets and Australia were bowled out for 474 giving India a lead of over 200 runs . Anil Kumble was spinning his web on the Australian batters and in the fourth Innings of this test match Anil Kumble took 4 more wickets and a total of 12 Wickets in the test match.
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7/48 and 6/133 vs Australia (2004)
Anil Kumble loved bowling against Australia in 2004 as in this test match as he took a total of 13 wickets In the test match which is a lot and in the first innings he took 7 wickets for just 48 runs in just 17.3 overs and he ripped apart the Australian batting line-up and then in the third Innings of this test match he bowled a mammoth 47 overs and took 6 Wickets for 133 runs and the match ended in a draw but Anil Kumble was the star of the match.
Also Read: Top 5 Best Ashish Nehra bowling Performances
6/12 vs West Indies (1993)
The last and final performance that we will talk about is his best performance in the ODI format and it came just 3 years in his career against a good West Indies team. India were batting first In this ODI match and they scored only 225 runs and it looked like West Indies will win but a young Anil Kumble spun his magic at the iconic Eden Gardens and he took 6 wickets for just 12 runs in only 6.1 overs and India won the match by 102 runs. Anil Kumble had arrived not just in test cricket but also in ODI cricket for a long time.
Must Read | Anil Kumble: Engineer to India’s Leading Wicket Taker
Watch Anil Kumble 10/74 vs Pakistan
