In a bizarre and one-of-a-kind incident, New Zealand spinner Eden Carson ended up bowling 11 overs in a Women’s ODI match against Sri Lanka in the ICC Championship in Galle on Friday.
The on-field umpires and the match officials did not notice the error as Carson went on to give 41 runs in her 11 overs and bagged two important wickets.
New Zealand star bowled the 45th over during Sri Lanka’s 330-run chase and thereby finished her quota of 10 overs with figures of two for 40.
However, she returned back to bowl the 47th over as the on-field umpires failed to maintain the over count of the 21-year-old Otago-born cricketer.
Eden Carson’s 11th over, however, went for just a single run and she returned with figures of 2/41 in 11 overs.
Since New Zealand was already almost certain to win at that point, it was fortunate for the officials that the counting blunder did not drastically change after that over.
With that, 21-year-old Eden Carson bagged a bizarre record by becoming the first female New Zealand bowler to bowl more than 10 overs in an ODI since 1993.
Additionally, since the last 55-overs-a-side match in ODIs in 1995, it was the fifth instance – across men’s & women’s ODIs – where a bowler has bowled beyond 10 overs.
Speaking of the match, New Zealand levelled the series with a dominant 116-run win and forced the decider.
After opting to bat, New Zealand posted a mammoth total of 329/7 in 50 overs, thanks to centuries from captain Sophie Devine and Amelia Kerr.
Lea Tahuhu led the bowling attack for New Zealand as she grabbed four wickets, followed by Eden Carson, who picked up two in her 11 overs.
In the run chase, Sri Lanka ran into a batting collapse and lost half of their side inside 13 overs for just 76 runs. Kavisha Dilhari waged a lone battle, hitting 84 off 98 before departing.
The touring side could only accumulate 213 runs in response before being bundled out in the 49th over.
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