Shahid Afridi smacks maiden T20 century, Twitter goes crazy

Before this knock, Shahid Afridi managed to score just 50 runs in his last 7 innings.

By Sayantan Bhattacharjee

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2 Min Read

Shahid Afridi
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Shahid Afridi of Hampshire celebrates his century with James Vince. (Photo by Nigel Roddis/Getty Images)

One of the most celebrated cricketers of all time, Shahid Afridi’s bucket list is very much ticked now. A hundred in his T20 career looked an obvious item but it took its share of time and when it arrived, was carnage. Afridi was promoted up to open the innings in the NatWest T20 Blast, and the veteran responded in his usual fashion. He scored 16 runs in the very first over of Wayne Madsen. Hamshire scored their highest T20 total, going past the 225 against Middlesex in 2006.

The all-rounder was scoring the runs at will, Afridi reached 45 off just 18 balls. He got to the fifty in no time, plundering massive ones all over the ground. The opener never looked out of sort. In his previous seven innings, Afridi has managed just about 50 runs, and here he went past his previous best T20 score of 80, in an identical fashion. The aggressive batsman smashed seven sixes in his herculean knock. His partner James Vince, with whom Afridi registered a 100 plus-run partnership, scored a 36-ball 55.

Hampshire put up 249/8 on the board. It was the fastest hundred in 2007 Natwest T20 Blast, beating the 45-ball centuries made by Worcestershire’s Joe Clarke and Nottinghamshire’s Alex Hales.

Proving a point

Afridi said he had asked Hampshire’s management to let him open because he felt “wasted at seven or eight” and he did prove a point by going after the Derbyshire attack. The right-hander finally got out for 101 off 43 deliveries, including 10 boundaries and seven sixes. George Bailey played a cameo of 11-ball 27.

Chasing 250 to win, Derbyshire batsmen lost the plot. They were bundled out for 148, with Liam Dawson picking 3/28 and Kyle Abbott bagging 3/25. Mason Crane also chipped in with two wickets, finishing with figures of 2/ 33. Afridi didn’t have much luck with the ball, as he went wicket-less after bowling three overs for 0/28. Twitter couldn’t keep calm and therefore let’s check out some of the most interesting tweets of the day.

Here is how Twitterati reacted to the Afridi hurricane

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