On this day: Colin Ackermann creates history in T20 cricket
It was just another T20 Blast game. Leicestershire hosted Warwickshire in the North Division at the Grace Road in Leicester. The hosts elected to bat first after winning the toss. Their Leicestershire captain Colin Ackermann walked to bat at No.4 in the 11th over and got out facing three balls after hitting a four. Not so much of a captain’s knock.
The home team finished an impressive total of 189/5. The pitch in Leicester usually slows down and hence, Ackermann decided to utilize his part-time off-spin as he brought himself in the attack in the 3rd over. He broke the opening stand of 21 runs with the wicket of Michael Burgess a ball after getting hit for a boundary.
4️⃣ – 0️⃣ – 1️⃣ 8️⃣ – 7️⃣ #OnThisDay in 2019, Colin Ackermann wrote himself into the record books pic.twitter.com/ioTY3MUreH
— Vitality Blast (@VitalityBlast) August 7, 2020
An over of three wickets!
Ackermann bowled the 7th over of the innings where he gave only five runs but Warwickshire soon staged a recovery. Sam Hain, who scored a 36-ball 50, was still a threat to Leicestershire as the visitors needed 72 runs from the last six overs. The captain took a risk of bringing himself into the attack which paid off for the hosts.
The off-spinner cleaned up Will Rhodes and Alex Thomson on the 1st and 5th balls of the 15th over while Liam Banks handed a return catch on the 3rd delivery. The 3-wicket over pushed the Birmingham Bears to 120/6 but Hains continued his fight from the other end. However, on the first ball of 17th over, Ackermann had the big wicket of Hains who scored 61 from 44 balls.
The world record!
A couple of balls later, Henry Brookes was cleaned up by the home skipper while on the final ball of Ackermann’s 4 overs, the visiting captain Jeetan Patel holed out at the edge of the cow-corner boundary. With the wicket of his opposite number, Colin Ackermann became the first player in Twenty20 history to claim a 7-wicket haul. Colin Ackermann’s bowling analyses read 4-0-18-7 which helped Leicestershire to register a 55-run win after bowling out the visitors to 134 in 17.4 overs.
Arul Suppiah’s 6/5 in the 2011 Twenty20 Cup were the best bowling figures in T20 format before Ackermann’s effort. England’s Twenty20 Cup in 2003 was the first-ever competition of the format and over the years, it stood host for the first 1-fer, 2-fer, 3-fer, 4-fer, 5-fer and 6-fer as well. Krishnappa Gowtham claimed a 8-wicket haul in a Karnataka Premier League T20 match two weeks later after scoring an unbeaten ton in the same match. However, the tournament doesn’t come under official T20 records.
