West Indies left-arm spinner, Gudakesh Motie, etched his name into the record books as he inspired his team to a thumping innings and four runs over Zimbabwe yesterday.
The Guyanese spinner bagged 7-37 in the first innings, a record by itself standing as the most by a West Indian bowler in Zimbabwe and the 13th best bowling figures in a Test innings overall. He followed up that performance with 6-62 which saw him ending with 13-99, the best by a West Indian spinner in the history of the game.
The feat broke the record held by Trinidadian off-spinner, Sonny Ramadhin, who took 11-152 against England at Lord’s in 1950 some 73 years ago.
Motie’s accomplishment also places him in an exclusive company as it is the third best figures overall only behind Courtney Walsh’s 13-55 against New Zealand in 1995, a month before Motie was born and Michael Holding who holds the record at 14-149 which came in 1976 at the Oval versus England.
His match winning bowling performance most naturally earned him both the Player-of-the-Match and the Player-of-the-Series awards.
At the presentation he said, “…very happy about this…I think I worked hard enough. I had a lot of practice. I am very happy…the wickets in my country are similar.”
Meanwhile, the Guyana Cricket Board and Motie’s local club, the Albion Community Centre Cricket Club have already issued congratulatory messages for the young spinner.
The series win saw another instrumental performance from another Guyanese in Tagenarine Chanderpaul who scored his first Test century which was 207 not out. He ended the series as the leading scorer.
