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Sports

A Kiwi Bloke Who Took Ten Wickets in an Innings Has Also Fallen Off a Six Story Building

"I'd rather not dwell on my accident. It's all behind me now. I'd rather focus on the 10 wickets that I took."
Rene Schwietzke/WikiCommons

In the Karaka senior A's last weekend, Jarrod Monkley pulled off a true miracle in cricket terms. He took a ten-wicket bag in an innings.

Want to know the bizarre thing? It's not even close to being the most amazing thing that's happened to him. Five years ago, the 21-year-old Aucklander fell six stories off a building, broke 38 bones in his body - and, incredibly, lived to tell the tale.

"It's a miracle that I'm alive and playing cricket," Monkley, a sheet metal worker, told Stuff. "I was in a lot of pain. I was in such a bad way that doctors even told my parents that I was not going to make it."

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Monkley's figures were 10 for 31 off 16 overs in the second innings, and featured no leg byes, byes, no balls and wides. Five wickets were bowled, four were caught and one was given leg-before-wicket.

"Taking 10 wickets in an innings is not something that happens every day," he said. "I took three wickets in my first spell and seven in the next. It was unbelievable. I didn't set out to do. It just happened."

THE CULT: CHRIS HARRIS

So did the fall. As a 16-year-old high school student, Monkley fell off the Auckland Institute of Technology building in Auckland.

Amongst the 38 bones broken in the six story drop were a huge number in his ankles and ribs - requiring so many steel plates and rods to be inserted into his body that "he can't go near a metal detector without setting it off."

"But I'd rather not dwell on my accident. It's all behind me now. I'd rather focus on the ten wickets that I took."

Outside his ten-for, Monkley had an all-round epic game in Karaka. He took 5 for 34 in the first innings (that's match figures of 15 for 65), hit 54 when batting first - and 46 not out batting second. He also hit the winning runs.

Jarrod Monkley - you bloody legend.