With the gentleman's game getting shorter with the popularity of T20 cricket, the plight of a bowler gets all the more pitiful with the batters getting full leeway of the shorter formats. The pressures of bowling in the death in the shorter formats of the game is extreme With with batsmen always looking to score big.
Sky Sports Cricket/ AFP
Such was the case in a Big Bash League game between the Melbourne Renegades and Hobart Hurricanes. The Renegades were set a stiff target of 184 to win; but were handed a lifeline in the very first over when pacer Riley Meredith gave away 17 runs off with Only one legal being bowled.
After his first three deliveries, Meredith had given away only one run, but then he overstepped by a distance to grant a free-hit to Aaron Finch. Finch had to wait for his freebie delivery as the very next ball was a wide down the leg Side that was beyond the reach of the keeper and went off for four byes. The next two deliveries were no balls which were also hit to the boundary by Finch. Riley's nightmarish end to his barrage extras ended the next ball which was flicked towards mid- Wicket for a single.
Despite Meredith conceding 17 runs off just one legal delivery and 23 off that first over, the Hurricanes managed to claw their way back into the game with some efficient bowling Jofra Archer and D'Arcy Short, as they ended up winning by 16 runs.
