New Delhi: Legendary Shahid Afridi on Thursday rocked cricket world with a hat-trick off the first three balls in his spell in the second match of Group B of the inaugural T10 League tournament in Sharjah.
Leading Pakhtoons, the former Pakistan all-rounder dismissed Rilee Rossouw, caught at long-on by Najibullah Zadran, then trapped Dwayne Bravo and Virender Sehwag in front to complete the hat-trick in the fifth over the Maratha Arabians innings.
Arabians captain and former India opener Sehwag won the toss and elected to field first, but ended up conceding 121/4 with Fakhar Zaman (45 off 22) and Liam Dawson (44 off 23) toying with the Imad Wasim-led bowling attack.
Also read: T10 right format to take cricket to Olympics, says Sehwag
Arabians chase started in the worst possible manner, losing two wickets inside the second over, thanks to a double strike from Mohammad Irfan. Then, in the fifth over, Afridi produced that magical over to reduce the Arabians to 46/5. Afridi's figures read: 2-0-19-3.
Watch Afridi's wicket here:
Another record in #T10Cricket, First ever hat-trick by @SAfridiOfficial in shortest format of the cricket. This is how he dismissed Rossouw, Bravo & Sehwag. Must say it was his day, treat to watch!!! pic.twitter.com/fHkRQk8lCV
— Raza Mehdi (@SyedRezaMehdi) December 14, 2017
Despite an unbeaten half-century (57 off 26 balls) from Alex Hales, Arabians lost the match by 25 runs.
Regarded as one of the most gifted all-rounders in the game, Afridi had played 27 Tests, 398 ODIs and 98 T20Is for Pakistan, scoring 1716, 8064 and 1405 runs respectively.
Also read: T10 Cricket League 2017 – Complete Squads, Schedule, Match Timings, Venues
He also took 48, 395 and 97 wickets in that order.
Earlier, Sehwag said that the T10 will be the ideal format to include in the Olympics.
"I think (if) we are talking about (the fact) that cricket should be a part of the Olympics, I think T10 is the right format. Because it gets over in 90 minutes and it's like a football match and a result will come. So I think, this is the right format, if ICC is thinking about talking to the (International) Olympic Association (Committee) that cricket should be part of that (the Olympics)," he added.
