Left-arm pacer Jaydev Unadkat on Wednesday continued with his brilliant performance in Ranji Trophy 2019/20 to guide Saurashtra to the final with a match-winning seven-fer in the semifinal against Gujarat in Rajkot. And with the spell, Unadkat broke a 21-year-old record in the tournament history to emerge as the highest-wicket taking pacer in a single season.
With his 10 wickets in the semis, three in the first innings and seven in the second, Unadkat took his tally of wickets to 65 in the 2019/20 season as he surpassed Karnataka's Dodda Ganesh who had 62 wickets in 1998/99. He also went past Bishan Singh Bedi's tally of 64 achieved in 1974/75. Overall, he stands second in the list after Bihar's Ashutosh Aman, who had taken 68 wickets in the last season.
Unadkat is also the third pacer after Laxmipathy Balaji (2002-03) and Aniket Choudhary (2018-19) to have five or more five-wicket hauls in a single season. The Saurashtra skipper has seven to his name.
Saurashtra will now take on Bengal in the final where the captain will have the opportunity to break's Aman's record. Bengal had defeated Karnataka on Tuesday to reach their first Ranji Trophy final in 13 years.
