APL 2018: Day Two, Round-up – Statistical Highlights

The second day of the APL T20 witnessed one-sided affairs as Nangarhar Leopards trumped Kandahar Knights by six wickets while Balkh Legends cruised to an 8-wicket win over Kabul Zwanan chasing 177. Ben Cutting claimed the first hat-trick of the tournament on his way through to a five-wicket haul, leading Nangarhar.

In the second game, Laurie Evans (64 off 47) and Rashid Khan (56 off 27) rescued their team from 76/5 to 176/6. The pair added 96 for the 6th wicket in 50 deliveries including 67 runs that came across 17-19 overs. However, Ryan ten Doeschate’s unbeaten 46-ball 78 took Balkh home with seven deliveries to spare.

All the major stats and numbers that were recorded during the second day of the tournament:

2 – Ben Cutting’s hat-trick in the first game for Nangarhar Leopards is only the second hat-trick in the Twenty20 format in Sharjah. Imran Tahir claimed a hat-trick for Multan Sultans against Quetta Gladiators during this year’s PSL.

3 – Laurie Evans’ fifty in this game is his 3rd consecutive fifty in the T20 format. He scored a 44-ball 52 in the final of the T20 Blast and an unbeaten 39-ball 79 in the first game of this tournament. His first three T20 innings in 2018 were also fifty-plus scores.

5/28 – Ben Cutting’s 5/28 against Kandahar Knights is his maiden five-wicket haul in the T20 format. The Australian all-rounder took more than two wickets only on two occasions in the 104 matches he played before.

He is also the second Australian to claim T20 five-fer as a captain. Clint McKay took 5/11 for Leicestershire against Worcestershire in 2017 T20 Blast.

53 – Runs Ravi Bopara conceded during his four overs for Balkh Legends including the 28 runs in his final over against Rashid Khan. This is the first time Bopara conceded over 50 runs with the ball in his T20 career.

In the 300 T20 contests before this game, the most Bopara ever conceded in a single game was 46 against Surrey in the 2018 T20 Blast match.

56* – Rashid Khan’s unbeaten 56 in this game is his maiden fifty in the T20 format. In the 126 T20s he played before, his highest was 34* in the IPL qualifier game for SRH against KKR earlier this year.

201 – Mohammad Nabi completed 200 wickets in the Twenty20 format with the wicket of Javed Ahmadi of Kabul Zwanan. He thus became the first bowler from Afghanistan to claim 200 T20 wickets. Rashid Khan is running behind the off-spinner with 191 wickets under his belt.

6031 – Ravi Bopara completed 6000 runs in Twenty20 format when he reached his individual score of seven. He is only the second player from England to complete 6000 T20 runs after Luke Wright (7199) who recently became the first England player to rack up 7000 T20 runs.

Bopara is also only the 3rd player to score 6000+ runs and bag 200+ wickets in the T20 format. Kieron Pollard and Shane Watson are the other two players to achieve this rare double.

For more news and developments, stay tuned on CricTracker.com.