Ajit Agarkar: Difference between revisions

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He has a relatively short figure as compared to his other fast bowling counterparts, but he could still bowl at speeds more than 90 mph (~142–150 km/hr) owing to his athletic body and a good run up speed. He has had a knack of bowling conventional swing at the start of the innings and reverse swing deliveries late in the game.

Agarkar made his [[One day international|ODI]] debut against [[Australian national cricket team|Australia]] at [[Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium, Kochi|Kochi]], on 1 April 1998. He took the wicket of [[Adam Gilchrist]] in that match.

Soon after his debut, a 20-year-old Agarkar achieved his first [[Man of the match]] award in a crucial Coca-Cola champions trophy match against New Zealand taking four crucial wickets while India was defending just 220 on 17 April 1998.

The positive start to his early career, Indian fans were hopeful of him forming a strong bowling partnership with Javagal Srinath. Srinath had been sidelined by injury during Agarkar's 1st season and was the only successful pace bowler in the National Team. The emergence of Ashish Nehra in 1999 and Zaheer Khan in 2000 created further competition for pace bowling options especially in home conditions. Frequent injuries to Srinath, Nehra, and Agarkar meant India struggled with pace bowling resources.

While Agarkar remained a part of the team, he wasn't able to hold down a  guaranteed place due to frequent injuries and severe competition for places especially after the emergence of Irfan Pathan in 2004. He was an important part of the hugely successful Indian team in 2002 and 2003 with Agarkar contributing some memorable performances with the bat and the ball. During this period, he was also a member of the Indian team which finished in the runner-up spot in the 2003 World Cup in South Africa.

Early in his career, Agarkar broke [[Dennis Lillee]]'s world record for the fastest 50 wickets in [[One Day International|ODIs]], achieving the feat from only 23 matches. He held the record from 1998 until 2009 when [[Ajantha Mendis]] achieved the feat from just 19 matches. Agarkar holds the Indian record of scoring the fastest 50 in ODI: he scored 50 off 21 balls. Agarkar also holds another ODI record, which is the quickest in terms of fewest  matches played to take 200 wickets and complete 1000 runs. Agarkar achieved this feat in 133 matches breaking the previous record held by South African [[Shaun Pollock]], who accomplished this feat in his 138th match.

During India's 1999-2000 tour of Australia, Agarkar set a record of seven consecutive innings resulting in [[Duck (cricket)|ducks]] (four of them first ball), which earned him the nickname "Bombay Duck".<ref name="IE2013"/><ref name="Beard">{{cite book |title=Ask Bearders |last=Frindall  |first=Bill |author-link=Bill Frindall |year=2009 |publisher=[[BBC Books]]|isbn=978-1-84607-880-4 |pages=80–81}}</ref> The wicket takers were [[Damien Fleming]], [[Brett Lee]], [[Mark Waugh]], [[Brett Lee]] and [[Glenn McGrath]].

Agarkar represented [[Kolkata Knight Riders]] in [[Indian Premier League]] for three seasons. In the fourth season, he was contracted by [[Delhi Daredevils]] for US$210,000.

He was also the captain of the [[Mumbai cricket team|Mumbai]] team that won the 2013 Ranji Trophy. Though his performance was rather lacklustre in the initial parts of the 2013 Ranji Trophy, he showed his class towards the end of the tournament. In the quarter-final, he scored 52* (from 53 balls) against [[Baroda cricket team|Baroda]] to ensure a mammoth total of 645/9 declared. In the semi-final against [[Services cricket team|Services]], he scored 145 and made a 246-run 7th wicket partnership with wicketkeeper [[Aditya Tare]] (120) to rescue Mumbai from 169/6, and take the total to 454/8 declared.

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