Navdeep Saini Rattles Off-Stump On His “First Ball” For Worcestershire. Watch

Fresh from his recall to the Indian Test side, pacer Navdeep Saini struck gold on his first ball for Worcestershire in a County Championship Division Two match. Saini, who had signed a four-match deal with Worcestershire, cleaned up Derbyshire opener Harry Came with a nip backer after the batter paid the ultimate price for leaving the ball. The incident happened on the first ball of the second over of Derbyshire’s first innings. “How about that for a first ball in Worcestershire colours!,” Worcestershire captioned a video on Twitter.

How about that for a first ball in Worcestershire colours!@navdeepsaini96 pic.twitter.com/8pw585qVMA

— Worcestershire County Cricket Club (@WorcsCCC) June 25, 2023

At stumps, Derbyshire were 32/2 with Came and Luis Reece back in dugout. Saini and Dillon Pennington have taken a wicket each so far for Worcestershire.

Earlier, Worcestershire were bundled out for 237 after opting to bat. Captain Jake Libby (78) was their top scorer. Libby is now the third highest scorer in Division Two this summer with 614 runs at an average of 61.40.

Meanwhile, Anuj Dal (5/45) was the wrecker-in-chief for Derbyshire as he ran through the top order.

Due to his India call up, Saini won’t be available to face Yorkshire (July 10-13), Leicestershire (July 19-22) and Gloucestershire (July 26-29). He had signed a four-match contract initially.

Libby said: “Honours just about even? I would say so. We will be a little disappointed with the bat. We would have liked to have squeezed a few more runs.

“It is quite a slow, turgid deck and was quite tough to score runs on it so our score is probably a bit more than what it looks like on the scoreboard.

“We bowled brilliantly this evening to get two wickets and the game is poised nicely.