On this day in 1994: Kapil Dev surpassed Richard Hadlee’s world record by clinching 432nd Test wicket

File image of Kapil Dev. Twitter/@ICC

Twenty-eight years ago, on 8 February, former Indian cricketer Kapil Dev scripted history by taking his 432nd Test wicket and creating a world record for the most Test wickets at that time. The all-rounder surpassed New Zealand cricketer Richard Hadlee’s record of 431 Test wickets.

India’s 1983 World Cup-winning captain achieved this feat during the third Test match played between India and Sri Lanka in Ahmedabad in 1994.

File image of Kapil Dev. Twitter/@ICC

Sri Lanka had won the toss and elected to bat. Sri Lankan batter Hashan Tillakaratne became Kapil Dev’s victim who was caught at forward short-leg by Sanjay Manjrekar in the eighth over of the match. The all-rounder dismissed Tillakaratne for 5.

Ahmedabad stadium erupted in cheers for Kapil Dev and 432 balloons were released to celebrate the historic feat.

During Sri Lanka’s 2nd innings, batters Roshan Mahanama and Hashan Tillakaratne hit 63 and 40 respectively. However, Azharuddin’s three diving catches at silly point and silly mid-off hastened the demise of Sri Lanka’s second innings. Sri Lanka  were bundled for 222 and the home team convincingly won the match by an innings and 17 runs.

With this victory, India whitewashed Sri Lanka 3-0 and also claimed their ninth home win in a row. Indian captain Mohammad Azharuddin was declared both Player of the Match and Player of the Series. Indian spinners Venkatapathy Raju and Rajesh Chauhan also contributed to the victory by picking up 17 wickets between them in the match.

However, this match remains etched in the pages of cricketing history for Kapil Dev’s stupendous world record of 432nd Test wickets. Kapil Dev went on to retire from Test cricket a month later with 434 wickets to his name.

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