Top 5 bowling performances by Ishant Sharma in international cricket

1. 10/108 vs West Indies (2nd Test, Kensington Oval, Bridgetown, 2011)

Ishant Sharma

This was Ishant’s greatest ever bowling performance, coming at a time when most senior players were rested, including left-arm seamer Zaheer Khan, after winning the ODI World Cup and the gruelling Indian Premier League.

After winning the first Test by 63 runs (with Sharma taking six wickets in the match), the teams proceeded to Bridgetown for the second game, where the Caribbean side bowled out the visitors for 201 in their first innings – with VVS Laxman and Suresh Raina the only two half-century makers. And what followed can only be described as carnage.

Ishant started the slide by first removing Adrian Barath after the batsman guided a short-of-length delivery to Virat Kohli at gully. He then shortened the length outside off, forcing Devendra Bishoo to play at the ball with an angled bat, and Kohli snapped up the chance at second gully.

Sharma then struck a body blow to the home side by trapping Ramnaresh Sarwan plumb in front of the wicket with a full delivery angling in around middle and off. A length ball angling into Darren Sammy trapped the all-rounder LBW – with replays showing it to be hitting the leg-stump.

With this, Ishant reached the landmark of 100 Test wickets as Sammy departed with his side reeling at 186/8. He wrapped up the innings by dismissing pacers Ravi Rampaul and Fidel Edwards to finish with 6/55, as India earned a slender 11-run lead.

Edwards’s fiery five-wicket haul kept India to 269/6 courtesy half-centuries from the veteran pair of Dravid and Laxman.

Needing 281 to win the match, West Indies were rocked by Sharma’s spell, as he removed Lendl Simmons for 14, followed by the wicket of Barath for the second time in the game. He then trapped Marlon Samuels and Sammy LBW to complete a four-wicket haul, as Darren Bravo and wicket-keeper Carlton Baugh denied the Indians victory and a 2-0 lead.

Nevertheless, Sharma’s inspired ten-wicket haul fetched him the Player of the Match award and he troubled the West Indian batsmen right throughout the series, adding another six wickets in the last game to finish with 22 for the series – thus winning the Player of the Series award as well. Magnificent stuff!