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Virat Kohli takes wicket with the first (0th?) ball of his T20I career

Kohli is the only man to have taken a wicket off what was technically the 0th ball of his T20I career.

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He may be a mere trundler, but Virat Kohli had his moments with the ball as well © Getty Images

Taking a wicket off the first ball of one’s career is not unheard of, but when Virat Kohli did the same at Old Trafford on August 31, 2011, it was off a wide. Abhishek Mukherjee looks at the only occasion when a bowler had taken a wicket off what was technically the 0th ball of his T20I career.

Taking a wicket off the first ball of one’s career, though not unheard of, is not a common occurrence. The 137-year span of Test cricket has yielded a mere 19 occasions; there have been 18 instances in One-Day Internationals (ODIs); while Twenty20 Internationals (T20Is) have produced eight such cases.

That is one thing. But what about taking a wicket off the 0th ball of one’s (T20I in this case)? How does one do that? The only possible way is to do it off a wide or a no-ball. While a bowler does not get credited with the wickets he takes off no-balls (run out, hitting the ball twice, obstructing the field, handling the ball), there are two ways that he can take wickets with wides — stumped and hit wicket.

Rahane stars despite Dravid blitz

The match, played during India’s humiliating summer of 2011, is also remembered as Rahul Dravid’s debut T20I. Included in the side following an excellent Test series, Dravid promptly announced retirement from all limited-overs international cricket, thereby attaining the “achievement” of announcing retirement before making his debut.

Dravid was not the only debutant in the match: while Ajinkya Rahane played his first T20I for India, England fielded Alex Hales and Jos Buttler for the first time. India lost Parthiv Patel early after MS Dhoni batted, but Dravid walked out to launch a furious onslaught on the Englishmen.

After a few quiet overs Dravid hit a huge six over mid-wicket off Samit Patel; the next ball soared over the long-on fence; and the last, a flatter one, was slog-swept over deep mid-wicket. At 101 for one after 11 overs India looked set for a big score, but Dravid’s onslaught (31 off 21 balls) ended shortly afterwards when he holed out to Eoin Morgan at cover off Ravi Bopara.

Jade Dernbach (four for 22) then hit back; Rahane (61 from 39) and Suresh Raina (33 from 19) was the only ones to put up some resistance. India were bowled out for 169 in 19.3 overs, losing their last nine wickets for 65 runs from 47 balls.

KP and Kieswetter set up chase

Hales had a dreadful debut. He middled the first ball he faced, but missed a straight ball from Praveen Kumar and was out for a two-ball duck. Craig Kieswetter and Kevin Pietersen began cautiously against Praveen and Vinay Kumar, but once Parthiv dropped the latter off Munaf Patel the pair launched a furious onslaught.

Kohli’s feat

England raced to 58 for one in six overs when Munaf struck: Kieswetter hit the slower ball straight to Raina at cover. Morgan and Pietersen saw off the rest of the over quietly; England needed 110 from 78 balls when Dhoni threw the ball to Virat Kohli — perhaps the most famous of cricketers who had modelled his action on Chris Harris (well, at least it looked like it).

Kohli had not bowled before. He did not bowl a proper delivery first up, either. It was a wide down leg. Was it intentional? One could never tell. Whatever it was, it had found Pietersen outside the crease, and Dhoni, despite having a terrible summer behind the stumps till then, whipped the bails off in a flash.

Kohli had started his T20I bowling career with a wide. His career figures read 0.0-0-0-1 at this stage, which is unprecedented in any international format of the sport.

Morgan and Bopara chase it down

The double blow pegged England back a bit, but fans of the sport know that there are fewer tasks more difficult in coloured-clothing cricket more difficult than stopping a rampant Morgan. Dhoni introduced Rohit Sharma, who was taken for two fours and a six in consecutive balls.

There was support from Ravi Bopara as well, and England soon reached a stage when they required 32 from 30 balls. Once again Munaf struck, removing Morgan, and helped contain the English batsmen, eventually bowling out with figures of 4-0-25-2 thanks to cunning changes of pace and variation. Meanwhile, Kohli returned figures of 3-0-22-1.

England needed 10 from the last over, but Vinay Kumar started with a wide outside off, and Samit Patel smashed him for fours off the next three balls, sealing the one-off T20I for England with three balls to spare.

What followed?

–  Since Kohli there have been seven cricketers to have taken wickets with their first ball: three (Nathan Lyon, Shaminda Eranga, and Dane Piedt) in Tests, two (Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Kenneth Kamyuka) in ODIs, and two (Nadeem Ahmed and Paras Khadka) in T20Is.

–  The complete lists read:

Tests ODIs T20Is
Tom Horan Geoff Arnold Michael Kasprowicz
Arthur Coningham Clive Lloyd Alfonso Thomas
Bill Bradley Shahid Mahboob Shaun Tait
Ted Arnold Shane Thomson Rory Kleinveldt
Bert Vogler Inzamam-ul-Haq Pragyan Ojha
Jack Crawford Everton Matambanadzo Virat Kohli (0th ball)
George Macaulay Sadagoppan Ramesh Nadeem Ahmed
Maurice Tate Wavell Hinds Paras Khadka
Matt Henderson Josephat Ababu
Dennis Smith Martin van Jaarsveld
Tyrell Johnson Monde Zondeki
Dick Howorth Kaushal Lokuarachchi
Intikhab Alam Rikki Clarke
Richard Illingworth Fidel Edwards
Nilesh Kulkarni Thilan Thushara
Chamila Gamage Parth Desai
Nathan Lyon Bhuvneshwar Kumar
Shaminda Eranga Kenneth Kamyuka
Dane Piedt

Brief scores: 

India 165 in 19.4 overs (Ajinkya Rahane 61, Suresh Raina 33, Rahul Dravid 31; Jade Dernbach 4 for 22, Stuart Broad 2 for 37) lost to England 169 for 4 in 19.3 overs (Eoin Morgan 49, Kevin Pietersen 33, Ravi Bopara 31 not out; Munaf Patel 2 for 25) by 6 wickets.

(Abhishek Mukherjee is the Editor and Cricket Historian at CricketCountry. He blogs here and can be followed on Twitter here.)

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