New Zealand pacer Neil Wagner became the second-fastest Kiwi to get to 200 Test wickets after Sir Richard Hadlee on the third day of the second Test in Melbourne.
Left-arm pacer Neil Wagner has been bowling relentlessly against the Australians in the current Test series. His barrage of short balls day in and day out has paid dividends as he has already bagged 13 wickets in just two Tests in the series and reached the milestone figure of 200 wickets.
It took Wagner 46 Tests (86 innings) to reach 200 wickets, the second-fastest New Zealander to get there. Sir Richard Hadlee reached 200 wickets in 1983 in 44 Tests (81 innings). Next fastest after Wagner are his current teammates Trent Boult and Tim Southee. While Boult got there in 52 Tests, the right-hander took 4 more matches.
Wagner’s 200th wicket was that of Steve Smith, the man with the highest Test average after Sir Donald Bradman. He has been playing well this series but had trouble whenever he came up against the left-armer. He has faced 116 balls and scored just 22 runs while getting out all four times to Wagner in the last two Tests.
The 33-year-old does not have the skills to move the ball around both ways but his ability to keep bowling long spells makes him special. He has consistently bowled short-pitched deliveries at the Aussies and has found something in the wickets column.
Smith said, “Obviously Wagner's got a serious tank. He carries on and just keeps on doing it, doesn't he. But at some point, hopefully he's going to get a bit tired.”
Centurion in the second Test, Travis Head said, “He's an absolute machine. He's been very impressive the way he's been able to go about it – the long spell he bowled in Perth, today he just didn't stop. We questioned who was going to bowl after tea and it was no surprise he took his cap off straight away and started up.”
At stumps on Day 3 of the second Test, New Zealand still need to get 6 wickets to begin their run-chase which is set to be above 500.
(Inputs from cricket.com.au)
