Vidarbha spinner Akshay Karnewar entered the T20 cricket record books after a brilliant back-to-back showing in the ongoing Syed Mushtaq Ali T20 trophy.
Karnewar, first broke the world record for the most economical bowling figures in T20 history, by becoming the first bowler to bowl 4 maiden overs in his quota of the match against Manipur on Monday. He registered figures of 4 overs, 4 maidens, 0 runs, and 2 wickets.
He broke the record of Pakistan pacer Mohammad Irfan, who had bowled 3 maidens in his 4 overs and picked 2 wickets while conceding one run.
Moreover, Karnewar is an ambidextrous bowler, who bowls equally effectively with both his left and right arms. His 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.
Not content with a world record bowling spell, Karnewar went one better on Tuesday and claimed a hat-trick against Sikkim while 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.
"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.
This wasn’t all, as recent IPL 2021 star Venkatesh Iyer made a strong claim for India call up as he starred with the ball for Madhya Pradesh. He registered bowling figures of 4-2-2-2, which is the fifth most economical spell bowled in all of T20 cricket.
