In T20s, it’s crazy to believe that a bowler would bowl at least one maiden over in the four-over spell, let alone more than that or probably four. But this feat has been achieved twice in the last two months. The 21-year-old Hong Kong pacer Ayush Shukla displayed his incredible spell of bowling against Mongolia during the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup Asia Qualifier A game.
At Kuala Lumpur, the Nizakat Khan-led Hong Kong side decided to bowl first, and that proved to be the smartest decision from the captain of the side. Their right-arm pacer, Ayush Shukla, started the bowling and picked up the wicket of the opponent’s opener, Namsrai Bat-wallet, on the last ball of the first over.
The same trend continued for the rest of the game. He kept on bowling at the right line and length, making it next to impossible for the opponent batters to score against him.
Ayush Shukla bowls four consecutive maidens in a T20I game
All the Hong Kong bowlers supported Ayush Shukla in the process, as the batting line-up of the Mongolia team couldn’t get going at all from the start to the end of their innings. Ehsan Khan picked up four wickets, giving away five runs in just three overs at an economy rate of 1.66.
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The opponents were bundled out for 17 runs in their whole innings in 14.2 overs. Despite picking up four wickets in the encounter, Ehsan didn’t get much limelight after the end of the game because the team’s opening bowler came up with a special feat.
Ayush Shukla bowled four consecutive maidens in the game, besides picking the lone wicket of Namsrai. His figures read 1/0 in four overs, something which New Zealand’s premier fast bowler, Lockie Ferguson, did during their T20 World Cup 2024 game against Papua New Guinea (PNG) at Tarouba in Trinidad. The expressive pacer gathered three wickets, giving away no runs in the four overs.
Ayush Shukla becomes the first Asian bowler and third overall to hold the record along with Canada’s captain, Saad Bin Zafar, who achieved the feat of bowling four maidens in a T20I game when he faced Panama in 2021 and also picked up a couple of wickets in the game. The 21-year-old Hong Kong bowler now has registered 30 wickets in 35 T20I games at an average of 28.90 and a strike rate of under 21, with the best of 4/49.
In the ongoing Asia Qualifiers, the pacer has been economical but hasn’t registered a lot of wickets in the event. He gave away only 11 runs in their game against Myanmar and Kuwait, besides going under an economy of five against Singapore.
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The Hong Kong openers easily chased down the score of 18 runs in 1.4 overs, as the huge victory has pushed up the team to the top position with a net run rate of +8.730, with three back-to-back wins in as many games in the ongoing competition.
They will next face the Maldives on September 03, and the eyes will be on the right-arm 21-year-old pacer, Ayush Shukla, to come up with such feats in the future.