Over the years, there have been many bizarre incidents on the cricket field that have left fans and pundits surprised. One such incident happened during the first T20I between India and New Zealand, which was played at the Westpac Stadium in Wellington on Wednesday. Batting first, Kiwi openers Colin Munro and Tim Seifert handed New Zealand a blazing start as they stitched a quickfire partnership of 86 runs in 8 overs before Munro was dismissed by Krunal Pandya. Munro played a fiery knock of 34 runs in 20 balls to give the hosts a perfect start.
But a strange incident happened during the fourth over when Munro started to walk back towards the pavilion after wind dislodged the bails while the left-handed opener was on strike. Munro, under the illusion that he got hit-wicket, started to walk back before realising that it was the wind which had removed the bails.
However, the Kiwi opener then picked up the bails and handed it to the rushing leg-umpire as bowler Khaleel Ahmed stopped his run-up midway. Munro was playing at 28 runs off 12 deliveries when the incident happened. The 31-year-old didn’t survive much longer as he was sent packing in the ninth over by Krunal. But his opening partner Seifert took the charge and played a brilliant knock of 84 runs in 43 balls, powering the hosts to a massive score of 219-6 in 20 overs.
Chasing the 220-run target, India lost their opener and stand-in-skipper Rohit Sharma for just 1 run. Shikhar Dhawan and Vijay Shankar got it going steadily for the visitors, but the flamboyant left-handed opener was left clueless by a 151 kmph Lockie Ferguson yorker.
After Dhawan’s dismissal, what followed was a complete disaster by the Indian middle order as Rishabh Pant (4), Dinesh Karthik (5), Hardik Pandya (4) were all dismissed for cheap. MS Dhoni (39) and Krunal (20) showed a bit of determination towards the end, but the 220-run target had become untouchable by that point.
New Zealand took a 1-0 lead in the three-match T20I series against India, but the Men in Blue will eye a comeback in the series in the second match on Friday, which will be played at the Eden Park in Auckland.
