5 best team bowling performances by India in recent years

When Indian bowlers dominated the gameIndia’s Test victories over the years have been attributed to the famed abundance of batting talent in the team. The Indian bowlers have been criticized for being too lackluster to take twenty wickets and win matches on their own.However, many of India’s most famous victories in recent times have been due to a combined effort from the bowlers, equally matching the deeds of India’s famed batting prowess. Here, we will look five such crucial bowling performances which brought India laurels.

#1 India vs SA, Johannesburg, 2006

The series that is most famously remembered for Sourav Ganguly’s comeback, featured one of India’s most memorable overseas wins, beating a star-studded South African in their own background for the first time ever.

After India had managed 249 in the first innings, thanks to Ganguly’s resolute 51 runs, Shanthakumaran Sreesanth, the eccentric Keralite paceman, playing just his sixth Test, ran through the Proteas side, skittling them for a mere 84 in the first innings, their lowest total in fifty years.

He bowled a nagging line, swinging the ball away from the right-hander continuously, ably supported by the ever reliant Zaheer Khan. Each of the pacers contributed in the first innings while Kumble came in to clean up the tail in two overs. 

South Africa were set a mammoth target of 402 in the final innings, and although Sreesanth ripped through the top order again, an 110 wicket partnership between Ashwell Prince and Shaun Pollock irritated the Indian bowlers, before the experienced Kumble quelled the counterattack with his wily flippers.