{
  "type": "article",
  "title": "Kohli's strangest bowling record: a wicket that landed before his first legal T20I ball, and Dhoni's role in it",
  "summary": "During India's only T20 international against England at Manchester in 2011, Virat Kohli picked up a wicket before bowling a single legal delivery in T20I cricket, with MS Dhoni stumping Kevin Pietersen off a wide.",
  "content": "Virat Kohli's bowling career includes a wicket that arrived before he had bowled a single legal delivery in T20 internationals, a quirk from a game at Manchester that still surfaces whenever fans swap the sport's oddest records. The moment came during India's only T20 international against England on 31 August 2011, and to this day Kohli remains the only bowler in the format's history credited with a wicket before completing his first valid ball.\n\nHow the over came about\nEngland were chasing India's total that evening at Manchester, and their opener Kevin Pietersen was in belligerent form, taking the attack to India's regular bowlers. With the frontline attack struggling for a breakthrough and wickets proving hard to come by, captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni made an unusual call. Instead of turning to one of his established bowling options, he tossed the ball to Kohli, who bowled only occasionally as a part-timer and was primarily picked for his batting. It was the first over of Kohli's career in T20 internationals, one that would go on to become part of the record books.\n\nA sharp delivery and a lightning stumping\nKohli's very first delivery of that over was a quick ball angled well outside the leg stump. Pietersen, looking to attack, advanced down the pitch to go after it but completely missed the line of the ball. It ran through to Dhoni behind the stumps, and India's captain, known for his lightning glove work, whipped off the bails in an instant to stump Pietersen before the batsman could scramble back into his crease. The umpire signalled him out, but in the same breath also called the delivery a wide, so the dismissal and the wide were recorded together on the scorecard.\n\nWhy it counts as a wicket with zero legal balls\nUnder cricket's laws, a wide does not count among the six legal deliveries that make up an over, so it is never logged as a valid ball in a bowler's figures, no matter what happens off that delivery. Because Kohli opened his T20 international bowling account with exactly this wide delivery, the record books show his legal-ball tally for that opening spell as zero, even though a wicket sits against his name. In effect, Kohli had dismissed a batsman of Pietersen's stature before he had bowled a single delivery that counted as legitimate in his T20I career, a stat line that still puzzles fans seeing it for the first time.\n\nA record built on chance, not pace or power\nCricket has no shortage of records built on a batsman's power-hitting or a bowler's raw pace, but this one rests entirely on a mix of luck, Dhoni's reflexes behind the stumps, and a rare coincidence of timing unlikely to ever be repeated. Even now, whenever conversations turn to the strangest and most entertaining records in the sport, this partnership between Kohli and Dhoni is among the first things mentioned by fans and commentators alike. Kohli built his reputation as one of the game's most aggressive batsmen rather than as a bowler, but this one unusual record from his occasional bowling will likely remain unbroken, since no other bowler in T20 international history has managed to take a wicket before bowling a single legal delivery of his own.\n\nQuestions & Answers\n\n1. When did Virat Kohli create this unusual record?\nIt happened on 31 August 2011, during India's only T20 international against England at Manchester.\n\n2. Who brought Kohli on to bowl?\nCaptain Mahendra Singh Dhoni handed the ball to part-time bowler Virat Kohli.\n\n3. Who did Kohli dismiss with that delivery?\nEngland's opener Kevin Pietersen was stumped by MS Dhoni off Kohli's bowling.\n\n4. How did the wicket count with zero legal balls bowled?\nThe delivery on which Pietersen was stumped was also called a wide by the umpire, and since wides aren't counted as legal deliveries, Kohli's legal-ball tally stayed at zero even though the wicket was recorded.\n\n5. Was this Kohli's first over in T20 internationals?\nYes, it was the very first over of Kohli's T20 international career.\n\n6. Has any other bowler matched this record?\nNo, Kohli remains the only bowler in T20 international history to take a wicket before bowling his first legal delivery.",
  "url": "https://trendkia.com/en/cricket/genda-phenkane-se-pahale-hi-gira-gaya-viketa-virat-kohli-ke-nama-darja-hai-kriketa-ka-yaha-anokha-rikorda-dhoni-ne-nibhaya-tha-aha-13521",
  "category": "Cricket",
  "publishedAt": "2026-08-04",
  "tags": [
    "Virat Kohli",
    "MS Dhoni",
    "Kevin Pietersen",
    "India vs England",
    "T20I record",
    "cricket record"
  ],
  "language": "en",
  "site": "TrendKia"
}