Stats: Mohammad Irfan records the most economical T20 spell

Mohammad Irfan produced one of the greatest ever bowling spells in the history of the Twenty20 format on Saturday in the Caribbean Premier League (CPL) match. The Pakistan pacer conceded just one run in his four overs and bagged two wickets to ensure St Kitts and Nevis Patriots crawled with a run rate of under three an over in the mandatory powerplay. The 7-feet tall pacer conceded a single on the last ball of his four overs quota which was the first and only run off his bowling in the game.

Playing for the Barbados Trident, Mohammad Irfan registered the most economical bowling figures in Twenty20 history. In this process, he broke the record joint held by Chris Morris in the 2014 edition of Ram Slam T20 and Chanaka Welegedara in the 2015 Sri Lankan T20 competition where they conceded only two runs in their four overs. Six other players conceded three runs in a T20 game after bowling four overs.

Fewest runs conceded by a bowler in a Twenty20 inning: (Min: 4 overs)

Irfan’s 23 dot balls are the joint most in a T20 game alongside Chris Morris who also bowled as many dots in the domestic T20 game. The tall pacer is also only the 5th bowler to have delivered three maiden overs in a single T20 match. However, all the previous four players to bowl three maidens in a T20 ended up on the winning side. If not for the single on the last ball of his quota, Irfan could have been the first to bowl 24 dot balls and four maidens in a T20 game. However, he would be disappointed as his record came in a losing cause.

The previous fewest runs conceded by any bowler in four overs of a T20 was three runs by Shoaib Malik in the 2013 CPL also while playing for Barbados Trident. Malik had figures of 4-2-3-1 in that game to record the then most economical CPL bowling analysis and joint best in all T20s. The likes of Sunil Narine and Sohail Tanvir conceded only three runs in 2014 and 2017 respectively while playing for Guyana in a game in the CPL.

Most maiden overs by a bowler in a Twenty20 inning:

(Stats as on August 25, 2018)

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