Nagpur, Nov 07: Young Australian off-spinner Jason Krejza today became only the sixth bowler -- third from his country -- to take eight wickets in his debut Test innings when he triggered an Indian batting collapse on the second day of the fourth and final Test here today.
The 25-year-old bowler, ignored by the tourists for the first three Tests in the series in which they trail 0-1, sent back India skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni (56), Sourav Ganguly (85), Zaheer Khan (1), Amit Mishra (0) and last man Ishant Sharma (0) in the space of 26 balls and 15 runs to finish with eight wickets for 215 runs in 43.5 overs.
Krejza was also on a hat-trick during his mesmerising post-lunch spell of 5.5-0-20-5 after sending back Zaheer and Mishra off successive balls before Sharma prevented him from achieving an even more memorable feat.
Krejza, who belongs to New South Wales but plays for Tasmania, thus became only the sixth bowler in history to take eight wickets in his first Test innings.
The others in the list are his compatriots Albert Trott (8 for 43 v England at Adelaide in 1895) and Bob Massie (8 for 53 v England at Lord`s in 1972), West Indian Alf Valentine (v England at Manchester in 1950), India`s Narendra Hirwani (8 for 75 at Chennai in 1988) and South Africa`s Lance Klusener (8 for 64 v India at Kolkata in 1996).
Massie and Hirwani also got eight wickets in the second innings in their debut Tests.
Krejza had made his mark on the first day of the tie yesterday by getting rid off Virender Sehwag (66), Rahul Dravid (0) and VVS Laxman (64) and could have added master batsman Sachin Tendulkar (109) to that list had not the Australian fielders let him off on 85 and 96 off the same bowler.
Bureau Report
