Lockie Ferguson (3/0) created history with the most economical spell in T20Is as New Zealand signed off from the World Cup with a seven-wicket hammering of Papua New Guinea here on Monday.
Ferguson recorded a dream spell of 4-4-0-3 as New Zealand shot out a lowly PNG for a mere 78 in 19.4 overs and overhauled the target with 46 balls to spare, scoring 79 for three in 12.2 overs.
Ferguson joined Canada skipper Saad Bin Zafar as only the second bowler in T20I history to have sent down each of the allotted four overs to a bowler as maiden, returning figures of 4-4-0-3 after the latter recorded 4-4-0-2.
One of the most consistent teams in ICC tournaments, New Zealand thus bowed out of this T20 World Cup with Group stage wins over Oman (nine wickets) and PNG, having earlier lost to Afghanistan (84 runs) and the co-hosts West Indies (13 runs) which led to their early elimination.
Like Oman in Group B, PNG lost each of their four Group C fixtures after the Kiwi bowlers led by Ferguson terrorised the PNG batters.
However, to their credit, PNG made New Zealand work hard with Kabua Morea doing a fine job. Morea had Finn Allen (0) caught behind on the second ball of the chase and also had Rachin Ravindra (6) at deep midwicket in the third over.
Devon Conway struck three sixes and two fours to make a 32-ball 35, which laid the foundation of New Zealand’s win as skipper Kane Williamson (18) and Daryl Mitchell (19) took them over the line.
Earlier, Ferguson’s magical spell helped New Zealand bundle out Papua New Guinea for a low score.
The Kiwis were successful in keeping the PNG batters quiet and pinned to their respective ends for the majority of their innings, with the first half witnessing the ball racing to the ropes for boundaries only on four occasions.
Trent Boult (2/14), playing in his last T20 World Cup match, began with a two-run first over but it was Tim Southee (2/11) who drew the first blood, getting PNG opener Tony Ura caught at deep backward point.
While there was no success for Boult in terms of wickets with the new ball, Ferguson struck on his very first ball to have PNG skipper Assad Vala caught at widish first slip for six.
Ferguson troubled the opposition batters to such an extent that PNG could not score a run off his first three overs.
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The right-arm pacer had further success when he pinned Charles Amini (17) in front of the wickets successfully for the third scalp.
Mitchell Santner (1/17) cut short the progress of Sese Bay (12), getting him caught by Finn Allen at long on after luring the batter to dance down the track and hit him but the connection was improper.
Having not conceded a run yet, Ferguson found an inside edge off Chad Soper (1) after he recklessly dangled his bat which came down awkwardly away from his pads.
Ferguson finished his spell without having conceded a run and joined Zafar, who was the first to have bowled all four maidens in November 2021 against Panama in T20 World Cup Americas Region Qualifier.
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Boult came back into the attack for his first wicket of the contest to clean up Hiri Hiri (7) while Southee bagged another in the next to remove wicketkeeper-batter Kiplin Doriga (5) out of the equation.
Having toiled for success in his first three overs, Ish Sodhi (2/29) grabbed a couple of wickets to wrap up the PNG innings in the last over.
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