Records held by Ajit Agarkar

Ajit Agarkar announced his retirement from all formats of International Cricket on 16th October 2013. He played 26 Tests, 191 ODIs and 4 T20Is for India from 1998 to 2007. He played his last international match for India on September 16 against New Zealand in the 2007 T20 World Cup.

Bowling Fame:

# He was the fastest to take 50 ODI wickets in 23 matches. He broke the 26 year old record of Dennis Lillee (Aus) who had done it in 24 matches. Currently the record for fastest 50 ODI wickets is with Ajantha Mendis who achieved it in 19 ODI matches in 2008.

Still Agarkar is the 2nd fastest to 50 ODI wickets and fastest Indian. The next Indian for this record is Irfan Pathan took his 50th wicket in his 31st ODI.

# Agarkar is the fastest Indian to take 150, 200 and 250 ODI wickets. He finished with 288 wickets in 191 ODIs.

# After 191 ODIs only 2 other bowlers had more wickets than Agarkar’s 288 - Brett Lee (334) and Waqar Younis (307) (Shane Warne also had 288 wickets)

# Ajit Agarkar is the 3rd Highest Wicket taker for India in ODIs and 13th Overall.

# He has taken only 2 5 wicket hauls but he took 4 wickets in an Inning 10 times. His tally of 12 4-wicket hauls is the most by any Indian. Next best is Kumble and Srinath with 10 4-wicket hauls each.

# Agarkar’s career best ODI figures of 6/42 against Australia at MCG in Jan 2004 are the 2nd best bowling figures by any Indian outside India behind Nehra’s 6/23 vs England in 2003 WC in South Africa . It is the best bowling figure by any overseas bowler in Australia.

# Agarkar’s career best Test figures of 6/41 against Australia at Adelaide in December 2003 are the 2nd best bowling figures by any Indian Pacer in Australia behind Kapil Dev’s 8/106 also at Adelaide in December 1985. Agarkar’s figures played an important role in India’s famous victory in the match.

Batting Wonders !

# Agarkar holds the record for the Fastest Half Century by an Indian in ODIs. He smashed a half century in just 21 balls against Zimbabwe at Rajkot in December 2000. It was then the 5th fastest half century in ODIs.
Second fastest half centuries for India is in 22 balls by 4 players - Kapil Dev, Virender Sehwag, Rahul Dravid and Yuvraj Singh.

# Agarkar scored his only Test Century at the Lord’s in England in Jul 2002. He scored 109* while batting at No.8 in the 4th inning of the match.

# He was the first player and the only Indian to score a Century while batting at No.8 in 4th innings of a Test Match. 2 others did it later - Daniel Vettori in 2009 and Matt Prior in 2013.

# Others Indians to score a Test Century at Lord’s are: Dilip Vengsarkar (3), Vinoo Mankad, Gundappa VIswanath, Ravi Shastri, Mohammad Azharuddin, Sourav Ganguly and Rahul Dravid.

# He scored his career best 95 in ODIs against West Indies in 2002.

# His 3rd and last ODI half century was against Australia in the First Final of VB Series 2003/04 at Melbourne. He scored 53 and Hemang Badani (60*) were the only Indians to score past 25 runs in the match.

# He smashed 40* in just 16 balls in an ODI against Zimbabwe in 2004.

# In the Australian tour of 1999/00 he was dismissed for Duck in 5 (First 4 were golden ducks) consecutive Test Innings (One at Adelaide and 2 each at MCG and SCG). Only 2 others in Test History have recorded 5 consecutive Ducks - Bob Holland (Aus) in 1985 and Mohammad Asif (Pak) in 2006.

# Agarkar scored 3 other First Class Centuries - 109* for India A vs Peshawar in 1998, 102* for Mumbai vs Himachal in 2009 and 145 for Mumbai vs Services in 2013.
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