Afghanistan vs West Indies, 2019: 3rd T20I – Afghanistan’s series winning streak, Rahmanullah’s record knock, Domination by pace bowlers and more stats

Afghanistan clinched the 3-match T20I series against West Indies by 2-1 margin after winning the last two matches of the series held in Lucknow. Karim Janat’s 5-wicket haul set up a 41-run win in the 2nd T20I while Rahmanullah Gurbaz’s knock rescued Afghanistan on Sunday. The youngster smashed 52-ball 79 with six fours and five maximums. His knock helped Afghans set a 157-run target in front of the West Indies. Some tight bowling efforts from the home side kept the WT20 Champions to just 127.

All the statistical highlights from yet another bilateral T20I series win for Afghanistan:

Afghanistan’s series winning streak:

5 – Afghanistan now has won each of their last five bilateral T20I series and has lost only one game in those five series. They defeated Zimbabwe by 2-0 margin in 2018, 3-0 margin against Bangladesh in 2018, 2-0 vs Ireland in 2018 and 3-0 vs Ireland in 2019 before defeating West Indies. Only Pakistan (8) and India (6) won more consecutive bilateral T20I series than Afghanistan.

Coming from behind:

1 – This is the first time Afghanistan won a T20I series from being 0-1 down. This is also the 2nd time West Indies lost a T20I bilateral series after taking 1-0 lead. The other such instance was during last year’s series against Bangladesh which was played in the USA.

Pacers domination:

36 – A total of 36 wickets have been picked up by the pacers in this series; the most by them in a 3-match T20I series surpassing 33 wickets during the 2013 series between New Zealand and England. In fact, the 36 wickets are the 2nd most by pacers in a bilateral T20I series behind the 39 scalps during the recent 5-match series also between New Zealand and England.

West Indies pacers took 21 wickets while Afghanistan quicks claimed 15 wickets in this series. Both are the most pace wickets for respective teams in a bilateral T20I series. In fact, these are the most wickets by a team’s pacers in a bilateral T20I series on Indian soil.

A series for teams batting first:

6 – This is only the 6th bilateral 3-match T20I series where the batting first team won all the three games. This is also the 2nd such T20I series hosted by India with the first one being the 2017 series between India and New Zealand.

Rashid in India:

42 – Rashid Khan now has taken 42 wickets in the T20I format across 19 matches on Indian soil; the most number of T20I wickets for any bowler in a country. He thus surpassed Tim Southee’s tally of 41 wickets which came in 35 matches.

Gurbaz’s records:

79 – Rahmanullah Gurbaz’s 79-run knock is now the 2nd highest individual score by a teenager in T20I format in Men’s cricket. Hiral Patel was 18 years and 177 days old when he scored an unbeaten 88 for Canada in 2010 against Ireland. Gurbaz was only 17 years and 354 days old on Sunday.

2 – Rahmanullah Gurbaz is only the 3rd teenager to score multiple T20I fifties in Men’s cricket. Another Afghanistan player Usman Ghani has two such knocks while Umar Akmal scored three fifties before turning 20. Only three individual fifties have been recorded in Men’s T20Is by players before turning 18 and Gurbaz alone has two such knocks.