BAN vs NZ: Mahedi Hasan bowls seven-ball over as umpire loses count

Bangladesh and New Zealand are squaring off in an ODI series to prepare for the upcoming ODI World Cup in India from October 5. However, the start of the series was not apt as the first ODI ended with no result. Hence, the battle between both sides in the second ODI was expected to be more intense in a motive to gain the all-important lead. Now speaking of the ongoing second game, there have been plenty of bizarre turn of events during the second innings of the match where New Zealand are chasing 255 runs to gain the lead.

Interestingly enough, it was during the 47th over of the BlackCaps' innings, that the Bangla Tigers' spinner Mahedi Hasan came to carry on the proceedings. However, the Bangladesh umpire Sharfuddoula became a victim of a brain fade moment, whereby he failed to keep count of the number of balls delivered in an over. As a result, instead of the usual six-ball quota, Hasan ended up bowling an over of seven balls while New Zealand were batting. This meant that Mahedi Hasan had to bowl an extra ball in the ninth over of his bowling spell.

Albeit, the extra ball did not make much of a difference for both the hosts and the visitors. Notably, the New Zealand skipper, Lockie Ferguson, was batting at that juncture and wildly swung his bat but failed to connect in an attempt to go big against the off-spinner.

Speaking of the umpire, the 46-year-old is a former domestic cricketer of Bangladesh. Sharfuddoula has played in 10 First Class games, whereby, he has scalped 31 wickets. Besides, when it comes to international umpiring duties, he has conducted over 150 matches so far.

Sodhi's 6-wicket haul led New Zealand to beat Bangladesh by 86 runs

Now, speaking of the second ODI of the ongoing series between the hosts Bangladesh and New Zealand, the visiting captain, Lockie Ferguson, elected to bat first after the coin was tossed in his favour. For the hosts, veteran Mustafizur Rehman took charge of the Bangladesh bowling and came hard on the Kiwi batters with the new ball. apart from Rehman, Mahedi Hasan too chipped in with three wickets. Hence, the impact on the Black Caps was such that by the end of the eighth over, New Zealand had lost their top-order batters.

However, the 95-run stand between Tom Blundell and Henry Nicholls for the fourth wicket turned out to be a match-winning phase for the visitors. Notably, Blundell got out shortly after completing his fifty (68 off 66 balls), while Nicholls missed his well-deserved half-century (49 off 61 balls) by just one run. Interestingly, spinner Ish Sodhi, who was recalled by Bangladesh captain, Litton Das, after he suffered a non-striker's end run out, played a vital knock (35 off 39 balls) to pilot the Kiwis to a respectable total of 254 runs.

In reply, Bangladesh had a forgettable start as the Bangladesh skipper fell cheaply. Thereafter, Tamim Iqbal tried to steady the ship with his sensible knock of 44 runs. The comeback man and the veteran Mahumudullah, too, tried to hold one end for the hosts with a notable knock (49 off 76 balls) but after his dismissal, Bangladesh seemingly surrendered shortly. Notably, Ish Sodhi starred with the ball as well as he kept jolting the hosts by taking wickets at regular intervals only to finish with a sensational 6-wicket haul (6/39) in his quota of 10 overs. As a result, New Zealand defeated the hosts by a big margin of 86 runs to gain a lead (0-1) in the three-match ODI series.