R Ashwin claims a record amidst bottle-throwing incidents in Cuttack

Cuttack, Oct 6: Amidst bottle-throwing incidents and South Africa's series-clinching 6-wicket victory over India in the 2nd Twenty20 International last night (October 5), off-spinner R Ashwin achieved a milestone at the Barabati Stadium.

Match report" title="Irate fans throw bottles; Match report" />Irate fans throw bottles; Match report

Yesterday's match will forever be remembered for the unruly behaviour of some of the fans. Play was halted twice due to spectators throwing plastic water bottles onto the ground.

Upset with India's dismal batting performance, where they were bowled out for 92, fans restored to hurling bottles. In South Africa's run chase, twice it was repeated. Earlier, it started at the end of India's innings.

With just 92 to defend in 20 overs, Indian captain MS Dhoni did not have any other choice than to bring on his number one spinner R Ashwin very early.

Dhoni handed the ball to Ashwin to bowl the second over of the innings hoping for a miracle. The Tamil Nadu bowler did his job by claiming 3 wickets for 24 runs in 4 overs but it was always tough to defend 92.

When the 29-year-old Ashwin dismissed AB de Villiers again, he became India's leading wicket-taker in the shortest format of the game. He went past left-arm paceman Irfan Pathan.

Ashwin now has 29 victims from 28 matches. Irfan is second with 28 scalps in 24 outings, The third in India's list is Harbhajan Singh, who had figures of 0/20 in his 4-over spell yesterday.

Most wickets for India in T20Is (Top 10)

29 (28 matches) - R Ashwin

28 (24) - Irfan Pathan

24 (27) - Harbhajan Singh

23 (40) - Yuvraj Singh

17 - Ashok Dinda (9 matches), Zaheer Khan (17)

15 (10) - RP Singh

14 (22) - Ravindra Jadeja

13 - Bhuvneshwar Kumar (13), Ashish Nehra (8), Yusuf Pathan (22)

11 (7) - Amit Mishra

10 - L Balaji (5), Pragyan Ojha (6), R Vinay Kumar (9)

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