King of the swingers Hoggard on verge of joining '200 club'
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Your support makes all the difference.The Yorkshire bowler entered this match needing just three more victims to become only the 10th England bowler to reach 200 wickets. By accounting for Sri Lanka's openers, Upul Tharanga and Jehan Mubarak - both leg before - he took himself to the brink of joining fellow Yorkshiremen Freddie Trueman, third on 307 wickets, and Darren Gough, in eighth place with 229, on the list.
For a long time, Hoggard had been regarded more as a willing workhorse, a support bowler who would not let the side down. But the Ashes series last summer and the two winter series in Pakistan and India demonstrated that the 29-year-old deserves a lot more credit than that.
While he will always be remembered for his epic eighth-wicket stand with Ashley Giles in the fourth Test at Trent Bridge last August, it should not be forgotten that five of the 16 wickets he claimed in the series came in that match.
He has a knack of picking off crucial batsmen at critical moments. He had a magnificent winter, emerging with 23 wickets from the six Tests, including his sixth haul of five wickets in an innings, and he played his part in ensuring the drawn rubber against India.
Hoggard's major weapon is his ability to swing the ball but he also varies his pace cunningly, and possesses a big-hearted attitude and tremendous work ethic.
He is no slouch in the field either, as his throw from mid-off to wicketkeeper Geraint Jones to run out Tillekaratne Dilshan showed. Hoggard is the sort of player who makes things happen and he has certainly helped to put the skids under the tourists.
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