LAHORE – Pakistani pacer Shaheen Shah Afridi has set a world record in ODI cricket as he showed impressive performance in first ODI against West Indies at the Brian Lara Stadium.
In this match, Afridi took 4 wickets and completed 131 wickets in just 65 ODI matches, becoming the first bowler in the world to achieve this feat.
Previously, this record was held by Afghanistan’s Rashid Khan, who had taken 128 wickets in 65 matches.
Pakistan Outclass West Indies
Hasan Nawaz, who became Pakistan’s ODI cap 254, combined with Hussain Talat, who returned to the ODI side after six years, for an unbeaten 104-run sixth-wicket stand to help visitors achieve the 281-run target with seven balls to spare in the opening ODI of the three-match series in Trinidad and Tobago on Friday night.
Player of the match Hasan (63 not out, 5x4s, 3x6s) entered the fray with Pakistan 158-4 in 30.4 overs, while Hussain (41 not out, 4x4s, 1×6) joined him on the crease with 180 runs on the board in 38th over.
The duo set the tone for the match-winning stand by gathering 26 runs off the next two overs taking Pakistan to 209-5 in 40 overs. In the next 8.5 overs they blitzed five fours and three sixes to edge out West Indies.
At the beginning of the chase, Pakistan lost Saim Ayub early but Mohammad Rizwan’s 55 and 40-run stands with Babar Azam and Salman Ali Agha (23, 26b, 3x4s), respectively kept the innings intact. Babar, who scored 47 off 64 balls, also shared 47-run stand with Abdullah Shafique (29, 33b, 2x4s, 1×6) for the second wicket.
Rizwan’s 17th ODI half-century (53, 69b, 4x4s) was vital in setting up the successful chase as he remained on the crease for 25.2 overs before getting pinned leg-before by Shamar Joseph in the 38th over.
For West Indies Joseph picked up two wickets, while Roston Chase, Gudakesh Motie and Jayden Seales dismissed one batter each.
Earlier, the pace duo of Shaheen Shah Afridi (8-0-51-4) and Naseem Shah (8-0-55-3) starred in the latter part of West Indies’ innings to finish with combined figures of 7-106 as they slipped from 200-4 in 41.1 overs to 280 all out in 49 overs.
The 6-80 collapse was orchestrated by the shining pace duo of Naseem and Shaheen as they shared three wickets each in this phase with the former executing two consecutive pin-point yorkers to take last two wickets.
Before this juncture, West Indies’ innings was headlined by half-centuries from opening batter Evin Lewis (60, 62b, 5x4s, 3x6s), skipper Hope (55, 77b, 4x4s) and no.6 batter Hope (53, 54b, 4x4s, 2x6s), while no.3 batter Keacy Carty chimed in with a 39-ball 30.
Towards the end Motie contributed with an 18-ball 31 comprising three fours and two sixes. After Shaheen delivered a first-over scalp for Pakistan, Lewis and Carty stablised the proceedings for hosts with a 77-run stand, while the hosts’ second half-century stand (64 off 89 balls) came between Chase and Hope for the fifth wicket.
Apart from the pace duo, the spin trio of Salman Ali Agha, Saim Ayub and Sufyan Moqim bowled their 10-over quotas picking up a scalp each and returning combined figures of 3-144.
