The Hindu : Sport / Cricket : `Milestone man' Kumble marches on

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Jun 14, 2006

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Sport - Cricket

`Milestone man' Kumble marches on

St. Lucia: Even after overtaking Courtney Walsh to emerge as the fourth highest wicket-taker in Test cricket, Anil Kumble remains his usual composed self and the indefatigable spinner says he enjoys his elder statesman status in Team India.

Kumble took three wickets in West Indies' first innings of the second Test to take his tally to 520.

Kumble is now fourth on all time highest wicket-taker lists led by Shane Warne (685) and followed by Muttiah Muralitharan (635) and Glenn McGrath (542).

``Walsh was there ahead of me at 519. It feels good that I crossed such a big player,'' he said.

Focus on job on hand

Despite the achievement, Kumble seemed more focused to complete the incomplete job of bowling out the host to wrap up the second Test.

``Landmarks come in our career, more important is to win tomorrow. We came pretty close to winning the last Test, we had to get only one wicket (but we could not). We have to makes sure we do it this time. We have two more days to get those nine wickets,'' said Kumble.

With West Indies struggling to bat out the remaining two days with nine wickets in hand, Kumble felt India was in a commanding position and the team expected to win from here.

``The ball will be up and down tomorrow. We expect to win from this position.''

Ganga's praise

West Indies opener Darren Ganga also heaped praise on Kumble.

``He is a class bowler, a guy with 520 wickets is definitely a challenge. He is very consistent with length, he bowls a lot straighter than other spinners.''

Ganga also said the pitch was getting very difficult to bat on but his team was playing for a draw. — UNI

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