Mohammed Shami proved once again that he is one of the best seamers going around in world cricket at the moment as he displayed his death-bowling brilliance while playing against New Zealand at the Himachal Pradesh Cricket Association Stadium (HPCA) in Dharamsala on Sunday, October 22.
Having bagged three wickets in his kitty already, Shami came to deliver the 48th over of New Zealand’s innings and demolished their lower order with a fine exhibition of death bowling.
He first snared the scalp of Mitchell Santner and uprooted his off stump with a lethal yorker that sneaked under Santner’s willow. The southpaw was lining up Shami with a high backlift but the ball flew under his willow and cannoned into the off
stump.
Shami produced yet another piece of gem on the very next delivery as he bowled a straighter one on the leg stump channel and the ball sent Matt Henry’s leg stump cartwheeling back towards the wicketkeeper KL Rahul.
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Shami didn’t stop there, he dismissed New Zealand’s centurion of the game Daryl Mitchell to claim his five-wicket haul. This is Shami’s second five-for in ODI World Cup history and has become the only Indian in history to claim two five-fers in the marquee tournament. Shami’s first-ever five-wicket haul in the tournament had come against England in the previous ODI World Cup edition. In a losing cause, Shami had bagged figures of 5/69 against the eventual champions.
Shami also has a World Cup hat-trick to his credit which also came in the last edition against Afghanistan. It was a crucial hat-trick for the side as Afghanistan were looking to run away with the game. Shami is only the second player from India in the history to bag a World Cup hat-trick alongside former pacer and ex-BCCI All India Men’s Chief Selector Chetan Sharma.