Mumbai Mumbai. Experienced all-rounder Jalaj Saxena achieved a historic feat in the Ranji Trophy while playing for Kerala in the fourth round match against Uttar Pradesh at St. Xavier's College Ground in Thumba, Thiruvananthapuram. Saxena on Wednesday became the first player in the history of the tournament to complete 400 wickets and 6000 runs. The experienced cricketer had completed 6000 runs in the tournament against Kolkata in the last round and had Nitish Rana stumped on the first day of the fourth round. Achieved the feat of 400 wickets by getting out through. He joined the list last season when he became the fourth player in the history of Indian domestic cricket to complete the double of 9000 runs and 600 wickets across all formats.
Kerala captain Sachin Baby won the toss and decided to bowl first, after which Saxena tore apart UP's batting lineup and took figures of 5/56 in the first innings. Apart from Rana, Saxena took the wickets of opposition captain Aryan Juyal (23 runs off 57 balls), Madhav Kaushik (13 runs off 58 balls), Siddharth Yadav (19 runs off 25 balls) and Piyush Chawla (10 runs off 18 balls). . This was his 29th five-wicket haul in his Ranji Trophy career. With this new achievement, Saxena has become the 13th player in the history of Ranji Trophy to take 400 wickets. In the current season, Saxena has so far scored 101 runs in two matches at an average of 50.50, including one half-century. In bowling, he has taken 13 wickets in four innings at an average of 19.09 and an economy of 2.85. Talking about his illustrious career, Saxena started playing for his home state Madhya Pradesh in 2005. The experienced all-rounder has so far scored 4041 runs and taken 159 wickets for the home team before moving to Kerala in the 2016-17 season.
In 143 first-class matches played in his career, Saxena has scored 6795 runs at an average of 33.97, including 14 centuries and 33 fifties. The off-spinner has also taken 452 wickets at an average of 25.68 and an economy of 2.74 with 30 five-wicket hauls and eight ten-wicket hauls.
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