Afghanistan vs Ireland 2019, 3rd T20I – Statistical Highlights

Afghanistan continued their winning streak against Ireland team as they completed a whitewash in the 3-match T20I series. Mohammad Nabi starred with the bat scoring a 36-ball 81 with seven sixes and six fours. His knock helped Afghanistan to post 200+ twice in two days as they finished with 210/7. Kevin O’Brien guided the Irish team in the big chase with a 47-ball 74. From 128/1 in the 13th over, the Ireland side could only make 178/8 as Rashid Khan bagged a 5-wicket haul including four wickets with four straight deliveries.

All the major stats and numbers recorded during the series whitewash affected by Afghanistan’s series:

Afghanistan extends their winning streak:

10 – Afghanistan has won each of their last ten T20I matches; the 2nd longest winning streak for any team in this format. The longest winning streak in T20Is is held by themselves as they won 11 in a row between 2017 and 2018.

Four in four for Rashid:

1 – Rashid Khan became the first bowler to claim four wickets in four deliveries in a T20I game. He is also the 2nd bowler with 4 wickets in four balls in an International game. Lasith Malinga achieved this feat against South Africa in the 2007 ODI World Cup.

1 – Rashid Khan is the first Afghanistan player to claim a hat-trick in International cricket. He is also the first spinner to pick a hat-trick in T20I cricket. All the previous six T20I hat-tricks were recorded by pacers.

4 – Rashid is only the 4th bowler to claim four wickets in four balls in a Twenty20 game. Joe Allenby in 2008, Al-Amin Hossain In 2013 and Andre Russell in 2013 claimed 4 wickets with four successive deliveries in a Twenty20.

Rashid continues to rattle Ireland:

1 – Rashid Khan became the 4th player to claim two 5-wicket hauls in T20I cricket but the first to take two 5-fers in this format against an opponent. Rashid had figures of 5/3 against Ireland during the 2017 T20I in Noida.

5 – Rashid is only the 3rd player with five or more 4-wicket hauls in T20I format. Umar Gul has six such hauls in T20Is while Ajantha Mendis also has five 4-fers. Rashid picked four of his five 4-wicket hauls against Ireland only.

A series of records:

11 – Rashid Khan’s 11 wickets in this series are the joint-most for any bowler in a bilateral series. Netherlands’ Ashan Malik bagged 11 wickets in the 4-match series against Nepal in 2015.

37 – The 37 sixes hit by Afghanistan batsmen in this series are the most by any team in a bilateral T20I series. Afghanistan broke their own record which they set by hitting 34 sixes in the 2017 3-match series also against Ireland.

204 – Hazratullah Zazai’s 204 runs in this series are the 4th most by any player in bilateral T20I series. Colin Munro aggregated 223 runs in the 3-match home series against New Zealand in 2018 while Hamilton Masakadza scored 222 runs in the 4-match series against Bangladesh in 2016. Glenn Maxwell scored 211 runs in the 2-match series against Sri Lanka in 2016.

624 – Afghanistan became the first team to score 600 runs in a 3-match T20I series. The previous highest runs scored by a team in a 3-match series was 591 by South Africa in the 2015 home series against Windies.

Zimbabwe and Bangladesh scored 655 and 651 runs respectively during the 4-match T20I series between them in 2016. They are the other sides with 600+ runs in a bilateral T20I series.

1128 – The series aggregate of 1128 runs is the highest in a 3-match T20I series surpassing the 1121 runs during the 2015 series between South Africa and Windies.

Overall, the 1128 runs in this series are the 2nd highest in a bilateral T20I series behind the 1306 runs scored during the 4-match series between Bangladesh and Zimbabwe in 2016.