Malaysia's Syazrul Idrus becomes first man to take seven wickets in a T20I

Syazrul Idrus of Malaysia has become the first man to take seven wickets in a T20I match – a feat he achieved against China in Kuala Lumpur during the opening game of the T20 World Cup Asia B Qualifier. Adding to the whole achievement, Idrus picked all seven of his wickets by bowling the batter out.

With the 7/8 figures, Idrus broke the record by Nigeria’s Peter Aho who had earlier the best figures in a men’s T20Is. Aho had picked up 6 for 5 against Sierra Leone in 2021.

Among cricket’s Full Members, India’s Deepak Chahar has the record – his 6/7 against Bangladesh in 2019 is the joint-third best overall alongside Dinesh Nakrani (Uganda against Lesotho in 2021).

During the clash between China and Malaysia, China were 12/0 after four overs following their decision to bat. Idrus came into the attack as the first change in bowling and struck on the first ball of his second over. He went on to pick up three more wickets in the same over. The Malaysian bowler completed his fifer in the next over.

In his final over, eventually a maiden, Idrus took two more wickets to finish with figures of 4-1-7-8. His spell left China in tatters at 20/9 at the end of nine overs.

Their innings was wrapped up for mere 23 runs a couple moments later with Vijay Unni dismissing Luo Shilin.

In reply, Malaysia lost their openers early and were 3/2 after two overs. Virandeep Singh got the Malaysia team past the winning line with 19 runs off 14 balls, with the help of two fours and a six.

Malaysia won by 8 wickets having used just 4.5 overs to get to the 24 run target.