Nottinghamshire fast bowler Shaheen Shah Afridi was at his stupendous best in the T20 Vitality, or T20, Blast match on Friday against the Birmingham Bears.
At the Trent Bridge in Nottingham, the left-arm pacer finished with figures of 4-0-29-4 to give a glimpse of the damage he can do.
After the Outlaws asked the Bears to chase down 169, Afridi took his team off to an incredible start. His first delivery was a tad wayward as he leaked five wides, but from there on, he did not look back.
Shaheen Afridi, you cannot do that!! 💥 https://t.co/ehXxmtz6rX pic.twitter.com/wvibWa17zA
— Vitality Blast (@VitalityBlast) June 30, 2023
Starting with, Afridi dismissed Alex Davies with a deadly in-swinging yorker. Davies perished for a golden duck. In the very next ball, he rattled Chris Benjamin’s woodwork with a low full-toss after the batter went for a pre-meditated scoop.
With Afridi on a hat-trick, Dan Mousley picked up a single, after which opener Robert Yates got a single as well. But Afridi wasn’t finished for that over by any stretch of the imagination. He dismissed Mousley after Olly Stone took a stunning catch at short cover.
The pacer kept growing in stature after he ripped the poles of Ed Bernard to be on a hat-trick for the second time in the match. However, Glenn Maxwell got a single in the first ball of the third over to deny Afridi the hat-trick.
In the meantime, Afridi’s figures in the first over read 1-0-7-4.
Afridi’s efforts could not pay dividends as the Outlaws lost the match by two wickets. Yates, who witnessed all the carnage from the other end in the first over, stayed not out on 65 runs off 46 balls with the help of three fours and five sixes.
Later, Maxwell, Jacob Bethell and Jake Lintott scored 19, 27 and 27 not out to take the Bears past the finish line with five balls left in their innings.
“We deserved to win but they played well in the last few overs after the rain. It was the first time I took four wickets in my first over. It was good but if we would have won the game that would have been nice. Unfortunately, we lost,” Afridi said after the match.
🗣️ Shaheen Afridi on a blistering first over and a dramatic night under the lights. 👇#MoreThanAGame pic.twitter.com/sEX3Ssicka
— Nottinghamshire CCC (@TrentBridge) June 30, 2023
“It felt really nice the way the crowd was supporting me. When I was running in it felt like I am playing in Pakistan. I have spent a good time with my teammates, it is like a family.
“Rain delay affected the game. It changed the game. We were not able to grip the ball but that’s cricket you can’t control the weather,” he added.
