Five Match-Winning Performances Of Pragyan Ojha

Five Match-Winning Performances Of Pragyan Ojha; Left-arm spinner Pragyan Ojha has retired from international and first-class cricket. He made this announcing on Friday via Twitter. Ojha, who represented India in 24 Tests, 18 ODIs and 6 T20Is, said it was time to move on in his next phase of life.

Ojha, who made his international debut in 2008, played professional cricket for 16 years. Despite not featuring in an international fixture since 2013, Pragyan was playing domestic cricket until 2019.

The 33-year-old last played for India in 2013 during Sachin Tendulkar‘s farewell Test against the West Indies in Mumbai.

Ojha achieved World No. 5 as his career-best ranking in ICC Player Rankings and will be remembered as the first and one of the two spinners to ever win the Purple Cap in the Indian Premier League (IPL).

As he called curtains on his career, we came up with five best performances of him in his career.

Five Match-Winning Performances Of Pragyan Ojha:

5. When Pragyan Ojha paired with VVS to snatch a wonderful victory:

The India-Australia Test played at Mohali in 2010 might be famous for VVS Lasman’s unbeaten 73* and Ishant Sharma’s valiant 31, but you can’t overlook Pragyan Ojha’s contribution to it. He took three wickets in the match and also ensured India’s famous victory when the team still needed 11 runs to win after being 205 for nine.

Ojha scored 5* from 10 balls and the 19-minute stay at the crease helped India clinch the match. Chasing 216 to win in the fourth innings, India lost Gautam Gambhir in the first over of the innings.

Though all the other players got the start, none of them stood in the middle before Laxman walking to the middle with a determined mindset to finish things off.

However, none of the batsmen held their nerves in the middle to pair with VVS before Ishant scoring 31 to his name.

Just when things looked in control, India lost Ishant and the entire pressure was on Ojha to save his wicket.

Even the calm Laxman yelled at him in anger at times but Ojha successfully finished his task to bring smiles on Indians faces.

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4. 3/11 Against Chennai Super Kings in IPL:

One of his most cherished moments came in Indian Premier League 2013 when Chennai Super Kings (CSK) were folded out for just 79 runs on the board. Ojha was one of the wrecker-in-chiefs for Mumbai Indians (MI) to seal a low-scoring game.

Chasing 140 on the board, Chennai lost three quick wickets with Mitchell Johnson bowling a fiery spell.

However, with Michael Hussey still in the middle alongside MS Dhoni and Ravindra Jadeja to come, fans expected CSK to cross the line. But, then came the massive turnaround with Ojha showing his art in the middle.

Firstly, he removed Michael Hussey and then got Mahendra Singh Dhoni and Jadeja to give a massive relief to the Indians. He finished with his career-best of 3/11 in his 2.2 over spell. His performance helped Mumbai seal the low-scoring game with a margin of 60 runs and it is still the lowest total ever registered by CSK.

3. Memorable T20I Debut At The Trent Bridge:

Pragyan Ojha had a brilliant debut game at Trent Bridge when he was picked in the squad following his impressive show in IPL. It was in the game against Bangladesh when he picked four wickets for 21 runs to collect the Man of the Match trophy in the ICC World T20 2009.

Riding on the brilliance of Gautam Gambhir and Yuvraj Singh, India scored 180 on the board. In reply, Junaid Siddique looked threatening to India but the brilliance of Pragyan quickly changed things for the team.

He removed dangerous Junaid and later accounted for the wickets of Shakib Al Hasan, Mahmudullah and Mashrafe Mortaza to help India seal 25-run victory in the group game. Ojha was the third Indian to collect man of the match award on debut after Dinesh Karthik and Subramaniam Badrinath.

2. 4-for against Sri Lanka at Colombo:

Following his exceptional work in the domestic circuit and for Hyderabad franchise in IPL, Pragyan Ojha received a call-up to feature for India in the ODI series against Sri Lanka. It was the time when he showed his brilliance with the ball to get the trust of MS Dhoni, who was leading the side.

In the third ODI game of the series against Sri Lanka at Colombo, India scored a massive tally of 363 runs on the board with the help of centuries from Virender Sehwag and Yuvraj Singh.

In reply, Kumar Sangakkara looked dangerous in the middle, as he was after the chase with his elegant strokes all around the corner.

Then came Ojha to the middle, who completely turned things in favour of India by removing well-set Kumar Sangakkara.

He further ripped Sri Lanka apart by removing Kapugedera, Maharoof and Muralitharan to register his career-best figures in the ODI format. Ojha finished with 4/38.

1. Man of the Match performance in Sachin Tendulkar’s farewell Test:

The remarkable moment of Pragyan Ojha is his match-winning performance against West Indies in the farewell Test of Tendulkar in 2013. Surprisingly, it was his last Test appearance, in fact, his last appearance in international cricket.

In his last game for India, a Test against West Indies in 2013 which was Sachin Tendulkar’s farewell match, Ojha finished with match figures of 10 for 89 and was named the Man of the Match.

Pragyan Ojha bagged five-wicket haul in both the innings at Wankhede Stadium. He removed the likes of Chris Gayle, Darren Bravo and Marlon Samuels to give a winning send-off to the Indian Legend.