The last over of the innings is very important for both batting and bowling teams as they are eager to finish on a high. The pressure is on the bowlers, who are looking to restrict the batters from playing the big shots.
But nothing of that sort happened with Virandeep Singh of Malaysia Club XI as he picked up five wickets in the final over of an innings. The incident took place in the ongoing Nepal Pro Club Championship during Malaysia’s fixture against Push Sports Delhi.
This is when Virandeep bowled superbly to pick five wickets, including a hattrick. Moreover, the batting team, PSD, lost six wickets, with the other one being a run-out.
Delhi were batting first in the game and had reached 130/3 after 19 overs. With seven wickets in hand, they would have expected to finish on a high. But Virandeep had other ideas as he wreaked havoc with the ball. Rather the left-arm spinner picked up a double hattrick for his side.
The 23-year-old began the over with a wicket, and then, in an attempt to steal an extra run, Ishan Pandey was adjudged run-out. The rest of the over was all about Virandeep’s guile with the ball as he kept on breaching the defences of the batters, with three of them getting bowled and grabbed a caught and bowled chance as well.
PSD could add only two runs in the over, one of which came off a wide to end on 132 runs in their 20 overs. Virandeep returned with the figures of 5/9 in his two overs and also celebrated his hattrick wicket in Shaheen Afridi’s style with both his arms aloft.
He dismissed Mrigank Pathak, Anindo Naharay, Vishesh Saroha, Jatin Singhal and Sparsh to win the PotM award.
Interestingly, this is only the second instance of a team losing six wickets off six deliveries. It last happened in the 1951 Thomas Hunter Cup game between Rowland United and Royal Warwickshire Regimental Association.
