Rashid becomes fourth player to bowl a wicket-maiden in T20 World Cup Final — Find out who the other three are

England’s Adil Rashid became only the fourth player in ICC T20 World Cup history to grab a wicket-maiden in the tournament Final, when he prised the wicket of Pakistan captain Babar Azam in the 12th over, capping off an excellent performance at the Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG) on Sunday, November 13.

Rashid finished with excellent figures of 2/22, playing a big hand in England restricting Pakistan to just 137/8 after opting to bowl first.

The 34-year-old entered the attack after Pakistan got off to a steady start with 45/1 in the first seven overs. Rashid landed a wicket with his very first delivery in the Final as he got Mohammad Haris (8) caught at long-on in the 8th over.

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Rashid’s wicket-maiden came in the 12th over and again he struck with the first delivery. The leggie sent down a well-disguised googly and Babar (32 off 28 balls) went for a big hit only to send it lobbing back towards Rashid who took a good low diving catch.

Rashid then used the spin on offer to cause the new batter Iftikhar Ahmed all sorts of problems. Iftikhar failed to make any clean connection with the ball as Rashid closed out the over with five dots on the trot to build up pressure. That bore results in the next over as Iftikhar (0) was caught behind on a duck.

The wicket saw Rashid enter an exclusive list of cricketers who have grabbed wicket-maidens in a T20 World Cup Final. Here’s a look at the other three cricketers in chronological order.

Pakistani pacer Mohammad Amir become the first-ever player to register a wicket-maiden in a T20 World Cup Final as he gave Pakistan the perfect start in the 2009 Final. Opening the attack at Lord’s, Amir started with four dot balls before getting Tillakaratne Dilshan caught at short fine leg on the 5th delivery. He then closed the over with another dot ball to Sanath Jayasuriya.

Amir finished with 1/30 as Pakistan restricted Sri Lanka to 138/6 and chased down the total in 18.4 overs to be crowned World Champions.

Sri Lanka’s all-rounder Angelo Mathews grabbed the second-ever wicket-maiden in a T20 World Cup Final during the 2012 decider against West Indies at Colombo, Sri Lanka. Similar to Amir, Mathews opened the attack and struck with the wicket of Johnson Charles in the very first over while not giving away any runs to the West Indies.

Mathews finished with excellent figures of 1/11 as Sri Lanka limited West Indies to just 137/6 in the Final. However, the Lankan batting collapsed in front of their home crowd as the Windies bowled them out for just 101.

The only other spinner on this list, Samuel Badree was the last player before Rashid to grab a wicket-maiden on the biggest stage. Badree struck with a googly to get Eoin Morgan caught at slip in the 5th over.

Badree finished with 2/16 as England could only manage 155/9 which the Windies chased down courtesy an unforgettable blitz by ‘Remember the Name’ Carlos Brathwaite who smashed four back-to-back sixes against Ben Stokes in the final over.