Stats: A record 5-wicket haul for Shaheen Shah Afridi in the Pakistan Super League

Shaheen Shah Afridi’s bowling caught everyone’s attention as he was seen delivering some serious left-arm pace in the age level tournaments itself. He made an impressive first-class debut by taking eight wickets in one inning and had a successful Under-19 CWC earlier in January this year. He took 12 wickets in the tournament in only five matches including 6/15 against Ireland. However, the youngster didn’t have a best of starts in PSL as he went wicketless in the first three matches.

Lahore Qalandars brought back the left-arm pacer in the XI after they left him out in three consecutive games. Shaheen Shah proved his worth in the game against Multan Sultans with a brilliant spell of bowling. He dismissed Shoaib Malik and Ross Whiteley on consecutive deliveries and Saif Badar a couple of balls later in his 2nd over. In his final over, Shaheen sent back Junaid Khan and Mohammad Irfan to complete a 5-wicket haul.

From 92/1 in the 13th over, Sultans were bowled out for only 114 due to the 17-year-old’s brilliance. His performance gave Qalandars a realistic chance of winning the match after losing all the six games they played in this season. At the age of 17 years and 337 days, Shaheen Shah Afridi became the 5th youngest player to bag a 5-wicket haul in the Twenty20 format. He is also the 2nd youngest Pakistan player to take a T20 5-fer after Zia-ul-Haq (17 years and 109 days). Shaheen is the youngest to take a 5-fer in PSL as none of the previous four players with a 5-fer in this tournament were less than 30 years.

Shaheen Shah conceded only four runs in the 3.4 overs he bowled out of which he delivered 18 dot balls. His 5-wicket haul came at a bowling average of 0.8 which is the 2nd cheapest 5-fer in the T20 history. Rangana Herath, Rashid Khan and Sohail Tanvir all took five-fers by conceding three runs in the format. Arul Suppiah’s 6/5 is the only other T20 five-wicket that had fewer runs than the wickets taken. Afridi’s 5-fer is only the eight in this format coming at an average of one and fewer average.

Cheapest 5-wicket haul in the Twenty20 format:

(Stats as on March 9, 2018)