Chandigarh teen Kashvee does a Perfect 10

Deepankar Sharda

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, February 25

For 16-year-old right-arm pacer Kashvee Gautam, today was simply unforgettable, a day every young cricketer dreams of — the Chandigarh girl claimed all 10 wickets against Andhra Pradesh in a Women’s U-19 One-day Trophy Plate Group match. Kashvee picked up a hat-trick as well as she became the first Indian cricketer, as per available records, to pick up all 10 wickets in a limited-overs match. In the match played at KSRM College Ground in Kadapa in Andhra Pradesh, Kashvee claimed 10 wickets for 12 runs off 29 balls, wrapping up the Arunachal innings on 25 runs. Chandigarh won the match by 161 runs.

The Chandigarh U-19 skipper thus became one of the very few cricketers, male or female, to pick up all 10 wickets in an innings. This feat is all the more rare in limited-overs cricket, in which a bowler has a limited numbers of overs to bowl.

According to the Guinness Book of World Records, Nepal’s Mehboob Alam became the first player to take all 10 wickets in an innings of a limited-overs match, playing for Nepal against Mozambique in 2008.

Kashvee’s 10 wickets in an innings could have placed her in a class of her own, as there is no record available about a woman cricketer taking all 10 wickets in a limited-overs match.

Kashvee, who started playing just four years ago, has emerged as one of the leading woman players of the city. A Class XI student of Government Model Senior Secondary School (Sector 26), she has made a mark in not only the U-19 tournaments, but also the U-23 One-day Trophy and T20 Championship.

In the U-23 One-day Trophy, she picked up 31 wickets in the league stage, while in the T20 format she claimed 14 wickets and scored 160 runs. In the ongoing U-19 tourney, she had bagged 18 wickets in three matches so far. Earlier, she played for Punjab for three consecutive years and had also attended a Zonal Bowling Camp.

“I have no information on setting a new record. They informed me that a player has achieved the same feat in men’s First-Class cricket, but that was a four-day game. Nevertheless, I am happy in what I have achieved. If not a national or world record, I am happy to perform as per my expectations today,” said Kashvee while talking with The Tribune from Kadapa.

Just for fun

Talking about her career, Kashvee said was not really inspired by a particular cricketer when she started playing the sport seriously. “I live in Sector 37 and started playing cricket as a ‘gully’ cricketer. In the evening after doing my homework, I would join my friends to play cricket with a tennis ball. There was no real motive to play, it was just for fun,” said Kashvee.

“My friends asked me to take the sport seriously and since then I have left no stone unturned to give my best for it,” she added.

“I think my stint in Punjab was a real test time. I started training under Nagesh (Gupta) sir who worked on improving my technique,” said Kashvee, who played for Punjab in one U-16 and two U-19 state championships. “Playing for Punjab and attending the zonal camp also helped me improve as a bowler.”

In Tests

In Test cricket, India’s Anil Kumble and England’s Jim Laker have taken all 10 wickets in an innings.

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