Indonesia’s Gede Priandana etched his name into the record books on Tuesday (December 23) by producing a spell never seen before in T20Is. The 28-year-old right-arm pacer became the first bowler — male or female — to claim five wickets in a single over in a T20I, achieving the historic feat during the opening match of an eight-T20I series against Cambodia in Bali.
Batting first, Indonesia scored 167/5 in the first innings. Priandana opened but managed just 6 (11), but his partner, Dharma Kesuma, smashed 110 off 68 balls to lead his team’s charge. In reply, Cambodia lost their first couple of wickets cheaply and pushed on to 106/5 by the 16th over.
This is when Priandana sprang into action, striking with his first three deliveries to complete a hat-trick,
dismissing Shah Abrar Hussain, Nirmaljit Singh, and Chanthoeun Rathanak. After a dot ball, he removed Mongdara Sok and Pel Vennak to wrap up the contest, conceding just one run, that too off a wide, as Cambodia folded 60 runs short of the target.
Although five wickets in an over had occurred twice before in men’s domestic T20s — by Al-Amin Hossain in Bangladesh in 2013–14 and Abhimanyu Mithun in India’s Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy in 2019–20 — this was the first time the landmark was achieved on the international stage.
Until now, the best in T20Is had been four wickets in an over, which has happened 14 times, most memorably Lasith Malinga’s four-in-four against New Zealand in 2019.
Priandana made his T20 debut in September 2022. He has since played 62 matches on record, managing a modest 1034 runs at an average of 19.88 with a strike-rate of 105.51.
Till this match, his bowling figures weren’t extraordinary either, with 19 wickets in 26 innings at 21.42, although he did take four wickets for eight runs in two overs in a match against Myanmar last month.
