Lockie Ferguson achieved a men's T20 World Cup first against Papua new Guinea today (June 17), when he bowled his full quota of four overs without conceding a single run off the bat.
The right-arm quick came on midway through the powerplay, bowling the fourth over of the game and striking with his first ball. He enticed Asaad Vala into a drive and caught the edge of his bat, with the ball going through to Daryl Mitchell at first slip. The rest of the over consisted of five dot balls, giving him the sixth maiden of his T20I career.
Coming back on for his next over, Ferguson immediately moved up another rung on the most T20I maidens charts, sending down six dot balls this time to Sese Bau. He brought out a play and a miss first up, before drawing a thick edge with his next ball. Bau slashed wildly at the next one, missing the fourth and defending the fifth. Closing out the over, Bau missed out on a cutable length to finish the first half of Ferguson's quota.
Already with rare figures from his first two overs, Ferguson came back into the attack to bowl the 12th over. An off-cutter went through to the keeper first up before he pinned one into Charles Amini's pads with his next. The umpire initial ruled it not out but a good decision to refer upstairs showed the ball to be thumping into middle and leg. Closing out the over with Hiri Hiri unable to make meaningful contact with the ball, Ferguson went back into the field with figures of 2-0 and one over left to bowl.
No bowler who has bowled their full four-over quota has previously conceded no runs in men's T20 World Cup. The only bowlers with economy rates of zero in an innings are Albie Morkel (1-0 vs England in 2009 - one over), and Nuwan Kulasekara (1-0 vs Netherlands in 2014 - two overs). The previous most economical spell for a bowler who bowled four overs in a men's T20 World Cup match was Frank Nsubuga, also recorded against Papua New Guinea in this edition of the tournament (2-4). Canada's Saad Bin Zafar has emulated the feat in T20Is, against Panama in 2021.
With the prospect of beating the lot, Ferguson came on to bowl his final over, and dependably sent down a dot to start with. He splatered Charles Soper's stumps with his second ball but endured a nervy moment with his next. Bowling to Kiplin Doriga, he sent down another slower ball which Doriga advanced to. Attempting a big shot, the ball rolled down to third man for two runs, which were ruled to have come off Doriga's pads so didn't add any runs to Ferguson's figures.
Another two dot balls were sent down before Ferguson lined up for his final delivery. Once again Doriga advanced bat could only send it back to the bowler, securing history for Ferguson.
Papua New Guinea were eventually bowled out for 78 with two balls left in the innings. New Zealand sent down 81 dot balls in the innings, the second most for a team in men's T20 World Cup history.
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