Watch: In a BBL 2022/23 match, Joel Paris of the Hobart Hurricanes conceded 16 runs off a single legitimate delivery.

There is little Steve Smith can do wrong this week, even in Twenty20 cricket, a format where he strikes at under 130. On January 17, he slammed a 56-ball 101 against the Adelaide Strikers – the first hundred in the history of the Sydney Sixers.

Four days later, he improved on that, with an unbeaten 66-ball 125 against Sydney Thunder, his third Twenty20 hundred and his highest score in the format.

Now, at the Bellerive Oval in Hobart, he walked out with wicketkeeper Josh Philippe after Hurricanes captain Matthew Wade won the bat flip and put the Sixers in.

The first over, from Riley Meredith, went without much fuss. Six runs came off it. Paris’s first two balls were on target, and Smith defended both.

Then Paris overstepped. It is not clear whether Smith had heard the call, but he shuffled across, ready for the slog sweep. He went down on one knee and dispatched the ball over deep square-leg into the stands.

Paris’s next ball was a free hit. Perhaps to keep it out of Smith’s reach – he had shuffled across again – he went for the leg-stump. However, he found swing precisely when he did not need it, and ended up bowling too wide. A diving Wade had no chance as the ball sped to the fence for five wides.

After bowling two dot balls, Paris’s figures read 0.2-0-12-0. There was a sense of inevitability by the time he came to bowl. Once again Smith shuffled across. This time Paris bowled an overpitched delivery, right in Smith’s hitting slot.

Smith dispatched the gift to the square-leg fence. Paris’s figures read 0.3-0-16-0, but at least he could bowl his fourth ball now.

The Sixers were 91-2 after 10 overs at the time of writing. Smith was leg-before off Nathan Ellis for a 33-ball 66, thereby missing out on a third consecutive hundred. Paris recovered from the horrors to 2-0-25-0.

Watch the 16-run ball here:

 

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