Watch: Hardik Pandya shellshocked after Arshdeep Singh bowls no-ball, concedes hat-trick of sixes in wild 27-run over
In the first India vs New Zealand T20I at Ranchi on Friday, Arshdeep Singh emerged as the culprit once again as he bowled a mammoth 27-run final over.
Arshdeep Singh's no-ball woes are becoming a big headache for Team India. The left-arm pacers' repeated no-ball offences are haunting India big time in close matches, especially T20Is, where the margin to err is a bare minimum. And on Friday at the JSCA International Stadium in Ranchi, Arshdeep emerged as the culprit again as he bowled a mammoth 27-run over. Bowling the final over of the New Zealand innings, Arshdeep conceded a no-ball, three sixes and a four to allow the opposition to end with 176/6. This could well have proven to be the game-changing over as India fell 21 runs short of the target
Arshdeep, who finished with 1/51, had a nightmarish end to his spell. Being shaped as India's go-to death bowler after Jasprit Bumrah, Arshdeep has finished well on many occasions but yesterday night wasn't one of those instances. He started the over with by overstepping resulting in a no-ball that went for a six. Daryl Mitchell, who took on Arshdeep, then smacked the next two balls over the ropes, implying that New Zealand smoked a hat-trick of sixes, followed a boundary off the legitimate third ball of the over. Mitchell's assault on Arshdeep and Hardik Pandya with a range of emotions as the India captain could be seen with a string of different expressions on his face throughout the over.
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After the third ball, Hardik went up to Arshdeep and had an animated chat with the bowler. The tactic worked as the bowler bowled a dot ball and a couple of doubles in the final over. But the damage was done, and from a position where India could have kept New Zealand under 160, the BlackCaps ended up on a solid total.
Not too long ago, a stat on Twitter stating that Arshdeep has bowled the most no-balls by any bowler to have played the a minimum number of matches, went viral. This was after Arshdeep had conceded a hat-trick of no-balls against Sri Lanka in the second T20I earlier this month. Having missed the series opener due to illness, Arshdeep looked woefully out of touch and match practice as he looked to have lost his line, length and rhythm entirely.
India were restricted to 155/9 after a top-order collapse; all-rounder Washington Sundar led the hosts' fightback with a 28-ball fifty but eventually failed to steer the side past the finishing line. This was New Zealand's first win in the ongoing tour after the side had faced a 0-3 clean sweep defeat in the ODIs.
