Top 5 bowling performances by Ishant Sharma in international cricket

4. 4/38 vs Australia (4th ODI, Commonwealth Bank Series 2007-08, Melbourne)

Ishant Sharma

With conditions helpful for fast bowling, the 19-year old Ishant led the attack superbly as he snared four key Australian wickets to restrict them to a low total at the MCG in the fourth game of the CB series.

The abrasive and aggressive Matthew Hayden, who had earlier got away with a couple of lucky slashes that ended up in the third-man fence, was deceived by Sharma’s swing and edged the ball to skipper Dhoni behind the stumps.

The Delhi seamer struck again when he surprised Ponting with some extra bounce, forcing him to fend the rising delivery straight into the hands of Sachin Tendulkar at second slip.

Andrew Symonds, who was at the centre of the storm during the second Test at Sydney, was Ishant’s third victim, nicking a sharply-rising delivery outside off-stump to Dhoni, before the pacer dismissed Stuart Clark for a duck to finish with figures of 4/38.

Rohit Sharma and Dhoni then combined well to take India to victory, and Ishant was once again declared the Player of the Match.