Vidarbha’s ambidextrous spinner has been making headlines this week for his stupendous bowling performances in the domestic tournament. After bowling 24 consecutive dot balls including two wicket-taking deliveries against Manipur to create T20 World record, Akshay Karnewar haunted Sikkim batters to take a hat-trick on the next day (November 9).
The Vidarbha bowler became the third bowler in the ongoing season to take a hat-trick. Karnewar got the first breakthrough for his team getting the wicket of opener Codanda Ajit Karthik on the fifth delivery of the eighth over. Karthik got bowled as he failed to pick the spinner’s delivery. Sikkim skipper Kranthi Kumar walked in to bat next but gave an easy catch back to the bowler getting out for a golden duck. On the first ball of the ninth over, he got the wicket of wicketkeeper-batter Ashish Thapa in a similar manner.
Karnewar got lucky in the same over as Nilesh Lamichaney got out hit wicket off the third bowler of the 10th over. The 29-year-old finished his spell conceding just five runs in his quota of four overs. His spell also included two maiden overs. As a result, chasing a total of 206, Sikkim managed to score just 75 runs for eight wickets in 20 overs.
Earlier skipper Akshay Wadkar won the toss and elected to bat first. There were cameos and good contribution from the batters throughout whereas Jitesh Sharma stood out with an unbeaten 20-ball 54 including two fours and five sixes to help his side post a total of 205/5. Vidarbha registered their second consecutive win on the trot and with a big margin of 130 runs.
Karnewar has taken 10 wickets from five games so far. He remained wicketless in only one match against Nagaland. His bowling average of 6.80 is the best in the tournament. Also, he has bowled most number of maiden overs (six) in the season.
