Sarfaraz Ashraf takes 6/0 in a KSCA organised T20 match

Left-arm spinner Sarfaraz Ashraf achieved a rarest of rare feat while playing for the Young Pioneer Cricket Club against Mercara Youth Cricket Club in the Karnataka State Cricket Association’s (KSCA) T20 tournament in Bangalore on Thursday. He took 6 wickets without conceding a single run and also bagged a hat-trick to guide his team to a comprehensive victory by 107 runs against the Madikeri team. Sarfaraz took 6 wickets, 5 of which came in five consecutive deliveries.

“I look to bowl aggressively to contain runs and I believe this gets me wickets. I bowl side-on like Malinga just to confuse the batsman. If a batsman is exploiting one area and getting all of his runs, I try to concentrate on one area which appears to be his weaker side,” the left-arm chinaman bowler was quoted as saying by the Mumbai Mirror. He was in line to get his 2^nd hat-trick but unfortunately, a close lbw decision went against him and he missed out on another incredible feat. “I also appealed for the lbw but the umpire thought it was missing leg stump,” he later said.

The 27-year-old youngster plays for Jharkhand in the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy (India’s domestic T20 tournament). He has turned out for Air India in the past and hails from Muzaffarpur region in Bihar. Sarfaraz has never broken the List A as he has been preferred only in the shortest format of the game. His only List A match for Jharkhand came against Odisha in 2014 where he wasn’t impressive enough to catch the eyes of the selectors. He last played a T20 match way back in 2015 and hopes to make the cut this time around.

“I hope selectors see this performance and I get called for any Indian Premier League team,” an elated Sarfaraz said.

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“I’m also trying very hard to perform well and go from strength-to-strength. I want to break into the national team. I feel I perform well but am not falling into the selectors’ radar,” Sarfaraz concluded. He was a member of the Hubli Tigers in the 2016 Karnataka Premier League and was instrumental in winning them the title.