Bhutan's Sonam Yeshey creates world record for best bowling figures in T20s

Records are meant to be broken and that's what Bhutan's Sonam Yeshey did with an eight-wicket haul against Myanmar on Friday, December 26. Yeshey's figures of 4-1-7-8 are the best in all T20s now, international or domestic.

The left-arm spinner became the first player to scalp eight wickets in an innings in T20s as the earlier record was held by Malaysian Syazrul Idrus (7/8 against China in 2023). Bahraini Ali Dawood (7/19 against Bhutan in 2025) is the only other bowler to achieve a seven-wicket haul in the shortest format in internationals.

In domestic T20s, it has been achieved on two occasions only as well - Colin Ackermann (7/18 for Leicestershire against Birmingham Bears in 2019) and Taskin Ahmed (7/19 for Durbar Rajshahi against Dhaka Capitals in 2025).

Coming back to Yeshey, the Bhutanese achieved the feat at the Gelephu International Cricket Ground in southern Bhutan during his team's third T20I against Myanmar. The visitors won the toss and elected to field first. Bhutan, despite an unbeaten half century from wicketkeeper-batter Namgang Chejay (50* off 45) and cameos from a couple of players, could only reach 127/9 in their allotted 20 overs.

The Myanmar openers gave a solid start as they were 21/0 after the first two overs. But things started to go downhill from here on as Yeshey was introduced into the attack. The 22-year-old made an immediate impact, dismissing Pyae Phyo Wai off his first ball. The spinner was not done in the over as he scalped two more wickets, leaving the visitors at 21/3 after the third over.

The left-armer struck once again in the fifth over, derailing Myanmar's chase. Yeshey completed his five-wicket haul in the seventh over with Htet Lin Oo's wicket. The spinner did not take much time to scalp his sixth, leaving the batting team in complete disarray at 38/6 in 6.4 overs.

Yeshey returned in the ninth over and once again picked up wickets off consecutive balls, thus completing his eight-wicket haul. Myanmar were all out for 45 runs, giving the home team a huge win by 82 runs. Bhutan, today, whitewashed Myanmar in the series with a 5-0 margin.