ZAZAI’S EFFORTS IN VAIN AS BALKH DOWN KABUL
SHARJAH: Despite a heroic effort by Hazratullah Zazai, Kabul Zwanan went down fighting the table toppers Balkh Legends by 21 runs in an Afghanistan Premier League (APLT20) match in Sharjah on Sunday.
Chasing a huge target of 245, Kabul failed to get over the line despite a late charge by Rashid Khan (19) and Colin Ingram (29) as Balkh riding on Chris Gayle’s whirlwind 48-ball 80 registered a comfortable victory.
Zazai became the joint third to smash the fastest fifty after India’s Yuvraj Singh and West Indian Gayle in T20s. All three batsmen achieved the feat in just 12 deliveries.
Zazai kept the chase alive with a firebrand 17-ball 62 with the help of seven sixes and four boundaries before his team-mates failed to carry on the momentum to lose their second match of the tournament.
He took 37 runs off the fourth over bowled by Abdullah Mazari, hitting Mazari for six consecutive sixes. Zazai hit two sixes off the first two balls at long on and mid-wicket while the third delivery was wide. He smashed a third six over midwicket again, fourth on the long-off, fifth at square-leg to reach his fifty and the last one straight over the bowler’s head to cap the over with 37 runs.
However, after his dismissal Kabul lost a few quick wickets and the middle-order batsmen consumed too many deliveries to steady as the required run rate spiralled to 18 an over.
Only four times in the history of the game six sixes have been hit in an over before – twice in the first class matches and twice on the international stage.
In 1968, Sir Garfield Sobers hit six sixes in an over off Malcolm Nash against Nottinghamshire. The feat was repeated by current Indian coach Ravi Shastri against Baroda’s Tilak Raj in 1985. In 2007, South Africa’s Herschelle Gibbs smashed Netherland’s Daan van Bunge for six sixes in an over while in the same year during a World T20 match between India and England, Yuvraj Singh emulated the feat by sending Stuart Broad over the fence six times in six balls.
Earlier, dashing West Indian batsmen Gayle smashed a blitzkrieg 48-ball 80 and gave Balkh a fiery start. He also shared two important partnerships of 93 and 58 runs with Dilshan Munaweera (45) and Darwish Rasooli (50).
Gayle and Munaweera added 93 runs for the first wicket in nine overs to set the tone for a big total before the latter holed out to Parnell off Shahidullah.
Kabul heaved a sigh of relief after breaking the dangerous partnership, oblivious to the fact that the worst was lurking around the corner. After the dismissal of Munaweera, Gayle and Rasooli added 58 runs in just 22 balls to tear apart Kabul’s bowling attack, which has star spinner Rashid. Even Rashid was spared as he conceded 40 runs in his 4 overs while Ingram was the most expensive of all the bowlers.
Gayle was at his devastating best, smashing 10 sixes and two boundaries as Balkh looked set to cross the score of 250 in their 20 overs. He took 31 runs in the 11th over off Ingram as he raced to 73 from 38 within a space of just six deliveries. He hit Ingram for two consecutive sixes off the first two deliveries. Ingram lost his line and length and gave away three wides.
On the next delivery again, Gayle sent him over the boundary ropes before collecting six more runs from the fourth legal delivery of the over.
To Ingram’s relief, Gayle took a single that came on the non-striker end.
But to the dismay of the bowler, Rasooli also hit him for a six on the last delivery.
Gayle lost his wicket to a runout when found short of the crease while Musa Muslim hit the stumps with a direct throw to get rid of the ‘danger man’.
However, Rasooli kept on heaping more misery as he went on to score a fifty off just 25 deliveries with the help of two boundaries and five hit over the fence.