Hadlee Passes Botham — 374th Test Wicket, Bangalore 1988

Hadlee had passed 300 wickets in 1986 and was the obvious successor to Botham as Test cricket's leading wicket-taker.

He arrived in India needing two wickets; at Bangalore he equalled and passed Botham in successive overs.

Hadlee had been chasing Ian Botham's record of 373 Test wickets through the 1987-88 series in Australia, where he was twice held up one wicket short. He arrived in India in November 1988 needing two wickets. At Bangalore in the first Test he removed Arun Lal early, equalling Botham, and then dismissed Manoj Prabhakar for the record-breaking 374th wicket. Both deliveries were trademark Hadlee — outswing from a tight, repeatable action delivered at military medium-fast pace. He was 37 at the time, in his 19th year of Test cricket, and bowling for a New Zealand side that had no other Test-class seamer for most of his career. He finished his career on 431 wickets, retiring in 1990 after a five-wicket haul at Edgbaston in his last Test. Botham, ever generous, sent a telegram congratulating him: 'About time, you old goat'.

“About time, you old goat.”

“I had been chasing it for 18 months. To do it in India was special.”

Hadlee played for two more years; the record was eventually broken by Kapil Dev in 1994.