Stats: Vinay Kumar enters elite list of top ten wicket-takers in Ranji trophy, surpasses Erapalli Prasanna
In his 100th First-Class match for Karnataka, Vinay Kumar finished the first innings with a figure of 6/34, including a hat-trick, in the quarter-final of the Ranji Trophy against Mumbai at Nagpur.
With his 22nd five-wicket haul, he entered into an elite list of top 10 wickets takers in Ranji Trophy history. The pacer broke several other Ranji trophy records as well. He surpassed another Karnataka player, the legendary off-spinner Erapalli Prasanna's wicket tally of 370 wickets. Only Sunil Joshi and BS Chandrasekhar are ahead of him in the wicket tally for Karnataka in the competition.
Former Haryana left-arm spinner Rajinder Goel is at the top of the list with 637 wickets. However, Vinay Kumar is the highest wicket taker among the fast bowlers in Ranji trophy with 376* wickets.
Today was his second hat-trick in the Ranji Trophy for Karnataka. His first hat-trick came 10 years ago against Maharashtra in the 2007-08 season. The 33-year-old also became the sixth bowler to take a hat-trick in the knock-out stage of Ranji Trophy and also the only captain to achieve this feat.
He is only the fourth bowler to take more than one hat-tricks in Ranji trophy history and the second one for Karnataka team after the legendary Anil Kumble. Kumar's hat-trick is overall the tenth for the Karnataka team in Ranji trophy, which is also the most by any team. The second in the list is Bengal with 6 hat-tricks.
His hat-trick today is only the third hat-trick ever taken against Mumbai in the Ranji trophy, who have won the Ranji trophy for a record 41 times. The other two hat-tricks also came in the knockout stage of the tournament.