Canterbury pace bowler Andrew Hazeldine may have a claim for cricket's unluckiest delivery after managing to squeeze a ball between middle and off stump without the bails being removed.
The Canterbury left-arm-quick thought he had claimed the wicket of Burnside West University's Mitchell Hay during his Lancaster Park side's 46-run T20 loss. Instead, the ball went for four byes after the deviating off the stumps it had just passed between.
"It's the strangest thing I've seen in a cricket match," said Hazeldine.
"I said to Mitch: 'You've got someone looking over you'."
Hazeldine says he realised exactly what had happened at the time, but even the umpire and many of his teammates didn't believe the ball had gone between the wickets.
However, a video of the event has since appeared on social media, backing up his claims.
"I went and looked at the wickets after the over and there was even a white mark on the inside of the stumps," said Hazeldine.
"In the video you can clearly see the ball go between the stumps.
"You can even see the bails wobbling, I still don't know how they didn't come off."
Equally as dumbfounded by the delivery was Hay who scored 13 off 14 balls.
The wicketkeeper/batsman admits even he doesn't know how he survived the delivery after seeing the video.
"I heard the rattle. I turned my head back to have a wee look and I was pretty surprised to see the bails still there.
"I wasn't quite sure what had happened," said Hay.
Hazeldine's luck didn't get any better with the bat, being bowled for a duck in the opening over of the Lancaster Park innings.
Star News