Abhishek Nayar bowls 17-ball over

Mumbai allrounder Abhishek Nayar sent down 10 wides and a no-ball in a 17-ball over in the semi-final of the inter-zone Deodhar Trophy. Mohammad Sami, the Pakistan quick, holds the record in ODIs, with his famous 17-ball over against Bangladesh in an Asia Cup match in 2004.

As with Sami's wild over against Bangladesh, Nayar's didn't have an effect on the outcome of the match: Nayar's West Zone won with nearly nine overs to spare. Nayar himself had handy figures of 7-0-49-2 with wickets of two specialist batsmen, Hanuma Vihari and CM Gautam. Nayar didn't look pleased with some of the wide calls, but later said it was more disappointment than dissent. "These things happen," Nayar told Mumbai Mirror. "I had a bad day, and I was not provoked by the umpire's call. I was a little rusty initially but I'm happy with my figures for the day."

Nayar come on to bowl in the 12th over of South Zone's innings, and began with the wicket of opener Vihari first ball. The wide malaise began with the third delivery of the over. Fifth, sixth, seventh, ninth, 11th, 12th, 13th, 14th and 15th were all wides. All bar one of those were off-side wides. Nayar even tried to shorten his run-up, but to no avail.

Finally, when Nayar seemed to have got the last delivery on target, he over-stepped. He survived being penalised harshly on the free hit as Dinesh Karthik, who saw all those wides go through, failed to connect with a wild swing. Nayar was taken off immediately, but he came back on to bowl the 19th over, and delivered only one more wide in his remaining six overs.