Picture Credit: Twitter
Cricket, being a game of uncertainties, is full of emotions. Although, eerie isn't particularly a word that one would usually associate with the sport. A rather unexplainable turn of events unfolded during the second Zimbabwe-Bangladesh T20I at Harare. While the wicket was clearly dislodged and the fielding team thought they had got a wicket through a hit wicket, the replay revealed that the bails actually came off on its own. Yes, you read that right.
It all happened during the 18th over of the Bangladesh innings when they were chasing a score of 167. In the 5th ball of this over being bowled by Tendai Chatara, there was actually a sound of the stumps getting disturbed just before the ball had even left the bowler's hands and while most were convinced that batter Mohammad Saifuddin was out hit-wicket, replays showed a different story. Saifuddin did not even get near the stumps while playing his stroke, and it was probably the wind that had blown off the bail leading to excitement among the Zimbabwe fans.
Check out the spooky video here:
What added to the drama was that it wasn't that just the bails had come off due to the wind but even the stumps had been knocked off, something which usually happens only when the batter or the ball makes contact with the wickets.
However, as it turned out, it was probably just the wind that had caused all the confusion and Saifuddin continued before being dismissed in the final over of the innings. Zimbabwe eventually won the T20I by 23 runs to level the three-match series 1-1 ahead of the final fixture on July 25. It was also the first time that the home side had beaten Bangladesh in the three-format tour with the visiting team the lone Test as well as the three ODIs and the first T20I.
While the hosts set Bangladesh 167 to win, courtesy 73 off 57 balls from Wessley Madhevere and a good little cameo of 34 from 19 balls by Ryan Burl at the end, Blessing Muzarabani (2/21), Luke Jongwe (3/31) and Wellington Masakadza (3/20) ensured that they win their first match of the series.