Picture Credit: Disney+ Hotstar
The first half of the 2nd T20I between India and New Zealand was not short of any action on Friday. There was lot of dew on the field in Ranchi which made it quite difficult for bowlers to grip the ball. At times, the ball slipped out of the hands which resulted in a missed catch by Venkatesh Iyer and a no-ball by Harshal Patel.
But amid all this, it seemed like the wood of cricket bat also got weak due to the wet conditions. As James Neesham tried to play a big shot off the bowling of Bhuvneshwar Kumar in the 18th over of the innings, a very confusing sequence of events took place.
What just happened in Ranchi?
The ball was in the slot for Neesham to clear the boundary but he absolutely mistimed it. Something flew in the air and the fans were surprised as to why the bowler did not try to take the catch. However, the replays solved all the mystery!
Actually, a part of Neesham's bat broke when the left-handed batsman attempted the slog shot and it was the bat's willow which flew in the air. Interestingly, the ball went nowhere as it ended up only in front of the Kiwi batsman after getting a bottom edge off Neesham's bat.
Watch the video here:
As expected, the all-rounder needed a change of bat but the replacement did not turn out to be too great for Neesham as he edged the next delivery which went straight into the hands of Rishabh Pant. On an evening where he broke his bat, the all-rounder had a very difficult outing as he could only score 3 runs off 12 deliveries.