Bowling a no-ball is criminal in limited-overs cricket, especially in T20I format. Arshdeep Singh committed the crime five times in the second T20I of the ongoing three-T20I series against Sri Lanka at MCA Stadium, Pune on January 5. As many as seven no-balls were bowled in the innings, the joint-most by a Test-playing nation in T20Is.
Before India, Ireland, Afghanistan and Sri Lanka had bowled seven no-balls in T20 World Cup and T20 Asia Cup 2016 respectively. Overall, Ghana bowled 10 no-balls against Uganda in a T20I encounter last year. Earlier, Serbia had bowled nine no-balls against Bulgaria in 2019.
Arshdeep also created the record for most no-balls by an Indian bowler in an innings across all formats. Earlier, Ishant Sharma had bowled three no-balls in an innings.
Apart from Arshdeep, Shivam Mavi and Umran Malik had bowled one no-ball each. In his first over, Arshdeep bowled three no-balls in a row to Kusal Mendis. The Sri Lankan opener hit a four and a six off two of the no-balls.
The left-arm pacer two no-balls in the penultimate over as well. Sri Lankan skipper Dasun Shanaka hit a six off the free hit delivery.
Arshdeep also surpassed Jasprit Bumrah to bowl most no-balls for India in the format. Arshdeep took just over 74 overs to bowl 12 no-balls whereas Bumrah bowled eight from 213.5 overs followed by leg-spinner Yuzvendra Chahal bowled five no-balls from 267 overs.
As a result, Sri Lanka posted a mammoth total of 206/6 on the board. Despite losing the sixth wicket off the last ball of 16th over, skipper Shanaka and bowling all-rounder Chamika Karunaratne scored 68 runs from the last four overs.
Arshdeep bowled just two overs and ended up conceding 37 runs from it. Mavi turned out to be the most expensive bowler as he conceded 53 runs from his quota of four overs. Speedster Malik was particularly expensive in his last over. Despite taking three wickets, he conceded 48 runs in his four overs.
