The 25-year-old did the scarcely believable and took five wickets in one over during a Plunket Shield match against Wellington in Queenstown yesterday.
• Neil Wagner's record breaking over
The South African-born left-armer's achievement is unprecedented in New Zealand first-class cricket and only four other players have taken five wickets from six deliveries in the history of first-class cricket.
So, it is an incredibly rare feat, but, amazingly, former Otago bowler Yasir Arafat has also chalked up five wickets from six deliveries, albeit for Rawalpindi against Faisalabad.
Otago spinner Alexander Downes also had a pretty good day when he took four wickets from four deliveries in Dunedin in the 1893-94 season.
Wagner was still trying to come to terms with his achievement when he spoke to the Otago Daily Times yesterday.
"This morning I was feeling a bit negative," Wagner said.
"Conditions were tough for fast bowling and the wicket was quite flat and it was slow. But I kept thinking to myself I want to finish the season on a high and finish in a good way. I wasn't sure how I was going to do that.
"But the ball started reversing and swinging quite a bit and things started happening. It was freakish."
It was certainly that.
Opener Stewart Rhodes got an edge on to his pads and Neil Broom took the catch in the gully to set the remarkable over in motion. Justin Austin-Smellie strolled out to bat and headed back moments later, bowled first ball.
Black Cap offspinner Jeetan Patel was not good enough to dig out a superb yorker which crashed into the stumps, and Illi Tugaga departed in similar fashion.
Former international Mark Gillespie brought the party to a brief halt, keeping the fifth ball of the over out before succumbing to the next.
How do you celebrate a five-wicket bag in one over? With another wicket of course. Wagner cleaned out Andy McKay to finish with six for 36.
"The guys had a lot of joy and were in shock and made it very special for me," Wagner said, adding it was a "once in a lifetime achievement" which he would do his best to top next summer.
Wagner will become available for New Zealand in April next year and, based on current form, he would bolt in.
He is the competition's leading wicket-taker with 51 wickets - three short of equalling Stephen Boock's record season haul for the province.
Five wickets in six balls in first-class cricket: Bill Copson (Derbyshire, 1937), William Henderson (North East Transvaal 1937-38), Pat Pocock (Surrey, 1972), Yasir Arafat (Rawalpindi, 2004-05), Neil Wagner (Otago, 2011).
