Who is Darshan Nalkande, the Vidharbha seamer who took 4 wickets in 4 balls in SMAT semi-final against Karnataka?

Vidarbha seamer Darshan Nalkande today took four wickets in four balls in the final over of Karnataka's innings in their Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy (SMAT) semi-final in Delhi.

Nalkande got the wickets of Aniruddha Joshi, BR Sharath, Jagadeesha Suchith and Abhinav Manohar off consecutive deliveries in the 20th over. He finished with figures of 4/28.

Nalkande's late heroics helped give Vidarbha a good finish after a fine display by the Karnataka top three. Rohan Kadam (87) and Manish Pandey (54) put on a 132-run stand before Abhinav Manohar hit 27 off 12 deliveries as Karnataka posted 176/7.

The winner of the semi-final will face Tamil Nadu in the final after they beat Hyderabad by eight wickets.

With this feat, Nalkande became only the second Indian to take four wickets in four deliveries in T20 cricket. The only other player to do so was Abhimanyu Mithun for Karnataka, co-incidentally in the 2019 SMAT semi-final against Haryana. Mithun's four wickets also came in the final over of Haryana's innings.

Who is Darshan Nalkande?

Darshan Girish Nalkande is a 23-year-old pacer born in Maharashtra's Wardha, who plies his trade for Vidarbha.

Nalkande has played three First Class matches, 11 List A matches and 21 T20s. He made his List A and First Class debuts in 2018 and followed it up with his T20 debut in 2019.

Interestingly, his four-wicket haul against Karnataka today did not give him his best figures. He has registered two 5-wicket hauls with best T20 figures of 5/9, which came against Arunachal Pradesh in their first match of this year's SMAT.

With his four wickets against Karnataka, Nalkande has taken his tally to 13 for the season. He has played for India U-19 and is part of the Punjab Kings setup.