Vishakapatnam (Andhra Pradesh): India pacer Mohammed Shami went past Trent Boult to become the leading ODI wicket-taker of the year 2019.
In the 2nd ODI against West Indies, Shami took his 39th ODI scalp of the year and went past kiwi bowler Boult, who has 38 in the same number of matches.
Shami reached the milestone by taking his first wicket of the match, dismissing Nicholas Pooran in the 30th over of the match amd later removed Windies skipper Keiron Pollard and Keemo Paul to add to his tally.
Shami now has 41 wickets in 20 matches and with no other team playing any ODIs in the remaining days of the year, the speedster is all set to finish the year at the top and could add some more wickets in the third encounter of the series.
Interestingly, this is not the first time when the Indian pacer has topped the wicket-taking charts in ODIs. In 2014, Shami claimed 38 wickets in the year and was the joint highest wicket-taker alongside Sri Lanka’s Ajanta Mendis who also took as many wickets.
Meanwhile, Team India's all-round effort helped them beat West Indies by by 107 runs and level the three-match series 1-1.
The West Indies were set a target of 389 by India with Rohit Sharma and KL Rahul scoring centuries as part of a 227-run opening stand.
The visitors started the chase well and they were cruising towards target until India's chinaman Kuldeep Yadav bagged a hat-trick and remove Shai Hope, Jason Holder and Alzarri Joseph in the 33rd over.
Interestingly, Kuldeep has now become the first Indian to take 2nd international hat-trick as he had previously taken a hat-trick during the 2017 series against Australia at the Eden Gardens in Kolkata.
