Lockie Ferguson (3/0) bowled the most economical spell in T20I history as New Zealand shot out Papua New Guinea for a mere 78 in their inconsequential Group C World Cup match on Monday. Ferguson joined Canada skipper Saad Bin Zafar as only the second bowler in T20I history to have sent down each of the allotted four overs as maiden, returning figures of 4-4-0-3 after the latter recorded 4-4-0-2.
The Kiwis were successful in keeping the PNG batters quiet and pinned to their respective ends for the majority of their innings which folded in 19.4 overs, with the first half witnessing the ball racing to the ropes for boundaries only on four occasions.
Trent Boult (2/14), playing in his last T20 World Cup match, began with a two-run first over but it was Tim Southee (2/11) who drew the first blood, getting PNG opener Tony Ura caught at deep backward point.
While there was no success for Boult in terms of wickets with the new ball, Ferguson struck on his very first ball to have PNG skipper Assad Vala caught at widish first slip for six.
Ferguson continued to trouble the opposition batters to such an extent that PNG could not score a run off his first three overs.
The right-arm pacer had further success when he pinned Charles Amini (17) in front of the wickets successfully for the third wicket.
Mitchell Santner (1/17) cut short the progress of Sese Bay (12), getting him caught by Finn Allen at long on after luring the batter to dance down the track and hit him but the connection was improper.
Having not conceded a run yet, Ferguson found an inside edge off Chad Soper's (1) bat crashing into the wickets after he recklessly dangled his bat which came down awkwardly away from his pads.
Ferguson finished his spell without having conceded a run and thus joined Zafar, who was the first to have bowled all four maidens in November 2021 against Panama in T20 World Cup Americas Region Qualifier.
Boult came back into the attack for his first wicket of the contest to clean up Hiri Hiri (7) while Southee bagged another in the next to remove wicketkeeper-batter Kiplin Doriga (5) out of the equation.
Having toiled for success in his first three overs, Ish Sodhi (2/29) grabbed a couple of wickets to wrap up the PNG innings in the last over.