Cricket news round-up – August 7: World record for Ackermann, hat-trick for Gowtham, Dravid receives notice

Leicestershire Foxes captain Colin Ackermann became the first bowler to take 7 wickets in a T20 match; Krishnappa Gowtham took a hat-trick against West Indies A; and Rahul Dravid received a conflict of interest letter from BCCI.

Ackermann creates history

In a Vitality Blast clash at Grace Road, Colin Ackermann, captain of Leicestershire Foxes, returned figures of 4-0-18-7 against Birmingham Bears. This was the first seven-wicket haul in T20 history, and obviously the best ever figures.

Ackermann broke the record of Somerset’s Arul Suppiah, who had figures of 3.4-0-5-6 against Glamorgan in 2011.

Interestingly, Ackermann is not even a full-time bowler. His part-time off-spin had fetched him 31 wickets from 90 matches before this. He had never taken 4 wickets in a match.

Gowtham takes hat-trick

Krishnappa Gowtham’s (6/67) hat-trick helped India A restrict West Indies A to 194. Gowtham bowled Raymon Reifer and Chemar Holder and trapped Miguel Cummins leg-before to end the West Indian innings and give India A a 7-run lead.

However, Cummins and Holder sought revenge, and reduced India A to 23/3 – a lead of 30 in the second innings – before stumps.

Notice for Dravid

BCCI has sent Rahul Dravid a conflict of interest notice for his roles as the Director at the National Cricket Academy, coach of India Under-19s and India A, and Vice-President of India Cements, who co-own Chennai Super Kings.

Dravid now has two weeks to respond to the notice. Sourav Ganguly, who had earlier received a similar notice himself, took to Twitter to criticise Dravid’s notice.

Global T20 Canada Playoffs lineup

In a must-win match, Toronto Nationals defeated Montreal Tigers by 35 runs to reach the Playoffs of Global T20 Canada. Toronto will now play Winnipeg Hawks in the Eliminator, while Brampton Wolves and Vancouver Knights will clash in Qualifier 1.

Asked to bat, Toronto put up 189/5, largely due to Rodrigo Thomas (70 in 56 balls) and Heinrich Klaasen (64* in 34). Thisara Perera had 3-0-24-2 and Nikhil Dutta 4-0-23-1.

Montreal began well, with Matthew Cross (39 in 26) and Dinesh Chandimal (36 in 31) taking the score to 104/2. At one point they needed 86 in 44 balls with 8 wickets in hand, but they lost 8 for 50 in 41 balls. The damage was mostly done by Chris Green (4-0-26-3) and Mitchell McClenaghan (3.3-0-27-3).