Feature

Guptill's wickets and wides

Part-time offspinner Martin Guptill proved to be quite effective - and rather lucky too - in one bizarre over in Delhi

Arun Venugopal
20-Oct-2016
"Now that I've got a wicket, how about a wide down the leg side?"  •  BCCI

"Now that I've got a wicket, how about a wide down the leg side?"  •  BCCI

Martin Guptill had an interesting day at the Feroz Shah Kotla. He walked out to bat in the afternoon heat. Two minutes later, he was walking back after having added no runs to his small aggregate on the tour. Guptill then spent a couple of hours watching Kane Williamson do his thing before returning to the field.
Under lights, Guptill flung himself around the Kotla, using his long arms to cut off speeding balls. He did not have much else to do, that is until the 41st over, when Williamson summoned him to the bowling crease. Guptill was up against Axar Patel. His first ball drifted down the leg side for a wide. For those who missed it, Guptill did it one more time. Before Williamson could consider developing a temper, though, Guptill waddled in and bowled a full toss against which Axar unleashed a mighty whack. Six? Four? No. Mitchell Santner, haring in from long-on, lunged forward and pouched the ball inches off the floor.
And so Guptill had his third ODI wicket in his 131st match; he marked the occasion with another wide down the leg side, this time to Amit Mishra. Three more deliveries went by, uneventfully: one, one, dot. Just in case boredom was setting in, Guptill struck once more; Mishra top edged a swipe to be caught by substitute fielder Doug Bracewell at short fine leg. Guptill responded with another - by now signature - wide down the leg side. A plain, old, length delivery for no run finally finished the over. Guptill walked away with a sheepish grin.
Ten deliveries, one bizarre over, and two dismissals that hurt India in their chase of 243.

Arun Venugopal is a correspondent at ESPNcricinfo. @scarletrun