Navdeep Saini Creates History On His T20I Debut For India

Navdeep Saini starred with the ball on his international debut as India beat West Indies by four wickets in the first T20I on Saturday. The youngster from Delhi, who impressed with his express bowling in this year’s Indian Premier League, hit the ground running in Florida.

On his second ball, he conceded a six to Nicholas Pooran. But just a ball later, Saini bounced out the left-hander. On the following delivery, he made Shimron Hetmyer drag the ball onto the off stump. After picking two wickets in his first over, he went on to pick up another to finish with impressive figures of 3 for 17 from his four overs.

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His spell helped India restrict West Indies to just 95 for 9. Virat Kohli’s decision to bowl first turned out to be spot on as Washington Sundar struck on the very second ball of the game to send back John Campbell for a duck. Bhuvneshwar Kumar then removed Evin Lewis for a duck too to leave West Indies reeling at 8 for 2.  Half of the West Indies team was back in the hut with just 33 runs on the board.

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At one stage, it looked like the hosts would struggle to even cross the 50-run mark but Kieron Pollard‘s 49-run knock gave some respectability to the total. West Indies ended their innings on 95 for 9 with just two batsmen managing to cross the double-digit mark. In reply, India chased down the total in the 18th over by losing six wickets. India now lead the three-match series 1-0 and will have a chance to wrap it up on Sunday with a match to spare.

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Talking about Navdeep Saini, he created history on his debut. The right-arm pacer became the first Indian to bowl a maiden in the 20th over. Not only that, he also picked up the wicket of Pollard in the final over. Overall, he is the fourth bowler to achieve this feat.

Not many can bowl a maiden last over. ?
Superb job on your debut, Navdeep. pic.twitter.com/MRvGbQCSyf

— Shikhar Dhawan (@SDhawan25) August 3, 2019

The other bowlers who bowled a maiden in the final over of a T20I are Jeetan Patel of New Zealand, Mohammad Amir of Pakistan and Janak Prakash of Qatar.