Finland Cricketer Mahesh Tambe Makes History, Scalps Fastest-Ever T20 Fifer In Just 8 Balls
Introduced into the attack in the 17th over, Tambe dismissed Estonian batters Sahil Chauhan, Muhammad Usman Sr and Steffan Gooch in the first over of his spell.
Tambe then came back to bowl the 19th over, dismissing Rupam Baruah and Pranay Gheewala in the first two balls to claim his hattrick and the record for the fastest five-wicket haul.
Tambe's fiery spell helped Finland bowl Estonia out for 141, a target which was then chased down with eleven balls to spare.
Fastest five-wicket hauls in T20I cricket:
8 balls: Mahesh Tambe (Finland) vs Estonia, 2025*
10 balls: Junaid Aziz (Bahrain) vs Germany, 2022
11 balls: Rashid Khan (Afghanistan) vs Ireland, 2017
11 balls: Moazzam Baig (Malawi) vs Cameroon, 2024
11 balls: Khizer Hayat (Malaysia) vs Hong Kong, 2020
Meanwhile, the attention of the cricket world has been caught by the heated spat between India head coach Gautam Gambhir and the pitch curator of The Oval Lee Fortis, ahead of the fifth and final Test between India and England.
Gambhir was on Tuesday heard telling Fortis "you don't tell any of us what we need to do, you have no right to tell us, you are just a groundsman nothing beyond" while pointing fingers at the chief curator. In response Fortis was heard saying "I will have to report this." In the presence of 10 squad members minus captain Shubman Gill, the training session in the field of play was going on as usual until Gambhir blasted Fortis, who is not the "easiest person to work with" despite winning ECB's best multi-day pitches award for the last three years.
India's batting coach Sitanshu Kotak tried to douse the fire by taking Fortis away from Gambhir, who was visibly angry with the chief curator. Later, Kotak explained what really happened in the middle.
"When we went to take a look at the wicket the coaches were there, someone came to us and said 'stand 2.5 metres away', which was little surprising. Day after there is a Test match, we had our joggers on not spike and it felt a bit awkward. I have never seen anything like that in my life.
"The Indian players had told me that he is not the easiest person to work with. Now you all know. It is okay to be protective and possessive about this pitch but not to this extent," said Kotak.
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