Vidarbha bowler Akshay Karnewar scripts historic T20 world record, bowls 4 maidens in 4 overs; claims hat-trick next day

Vidarbha's Akshay Karnewar enjoyed two cherished outings in the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy, bowling four maidens against Manipur and claiming a hat-trick the next day against Sikkim.

Vidarbha bowler Akshay Karnewar broke the world record for the most economical figures ever bowled in T20 cricket as the 29-year-old did not concede a single run in a Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy match against Manipur on Monday. Karnewar, 29, producing figures of 4-4-0-2, broke Pakistan pacer Mohammad Irfan's record to become the first player to bowl four overs, four maidens in men's T20 cricket.

Vidarbha cricketer Akshay Karnewar. (Akshay Karnewar/Instagram)

Karnewar's miserly spell played an instrumental role in Vidarbha crushing Manipur by 167 runs in the Plate group match. Vidarbha lead the division with 16 points, four more than Nagaland, Tripura and Meghalaya with three matches left. After scoring 222, Vidarbha bundled out Manipur for 55 to register the second biggest win in terms of margin of runs in the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy.

And to add icing on the cake, Karnewar, a day later on Tuesday, claimed a hat-trick against Sikkim returning figures of 4-1-5-4. He dismissed Codanda Ajit Karthik, captain Kranthi Kumar and wicketkeeper Ashish Thapa off successive balls to achieve the feat.

Against Manipur, coming in as third bowling change, Karnewar, who bowls both right-arm off-spin and left-arm orthodox, dismissed clean bowled Sanatombaroy Laiphangbam for a duck in the seventh over of the innings. He followed it with the wicket of Johnson Singh, who nicked to the keeper for 1 in the ninth over after facing five dot balls. In his next two overs, Karnewar did not concede even a single run and produced two more maidens to script the world record.

During his four over spell, Karnewar bowled both right-arm and left-arm spin. "It's unbelievable. Not conceding even a single run in the entire match is something extraordinary and I am really feeling good," Karnewar was quoted as saying by Times of India.

That wasn’t all. In the match between Madhya Pradesh and Bihar, Venkatesh Iyer produced figures of 4-2-2-2, which is the fifth most economical spell bowled in all of T20 cricket. Two of the top five spell were bowled on Monday in the SMAT.