LPL 2020: Match 6, KAN vs GAL – Golden duck for Afridi, Munaf's T20 comeback and more stats

Kandy Tuskers finally opened their points table as they got the better of Galle Gladiators by 25 runs during Monday’s game. Kusal Mendis smashed a 30-ball 49 in the first half as Kandy got to the 100-run mark in only ten overs. Later, Brendan Taylor scored an unbeaten 51 to help Tuskers finish with 196/5 in their 20 overs. Danushka Gunathilaka was the lone warrior in Galle’s chase who kept losing wickets despite staying in contention due to the required run rate. Gunathilaka’s 82 off 53 helped Galle to post 171/7 and narrow down the losing margin.

Here are all the statistical highlights from Kandy Tuskers’ 25-run victory during KAN vs GAL game:

Golden duck for Afridi:

26 – Shahid Afridi now has been dismissed for a duck on 26 instances in the Twenty20 format. Only Dwayne Smith (28), Umar Akmal (27) and Chris Gayle (27) have got out more often for a duck in T20s than Afridi who is currently tied alongside Kamran Akmal (26) and Lendl Simmons (26).

16 – Afridi now has been dismissed for a golden duck on 16 occasions in the Twenty20 cricket; the 2nd most by any player behind Jeetan Patel’s 19 golden ducks. As many as 17 of Afridi’s 26 T20 ducks came while facing one of fewer balls which are also the 2nd most in T20 history behind Jeetan’s 19 ducks.

6/7 – Shahid Afridi now has bagged a duck in a franchise T20 league of six different countries. Before the Lanka Premier League, the Pakistan all-rounder has registered a duck in IPL (India), BPL (Bangladesh), BBL (Australia), PSL (Pakistan) and APL (Afghanistan). The Caribbean Premier League is the only active franchise-based T20 league where Afridi did not bag a duck.

Taylor improves his record in Sri Lanka:

51* – Brendan Taylor scored an unbeaten 51 off 35 during the KAN vs GAL which is his maiden T20 fifty in Sri Lanka. The Zimbabwe cricketer featured in eight T20 games in Sri Lanka before the LPL 2020 where he aggregated 50 runs at an average of 6.25 with a best score of only 13.

First maiden over of the tournament:

1 – Asela Gunaratne bowled the first maiden over of the Lanka Premier League as his first over of the game (4th over of Galle’s innings) turned out to be a wicket maiden. It was also the first maiden over in Gunaratne’s 55-match Twenty20 career where he bowled in 47 innings.

Gurbaz @ 1000:

38 – Rahmanullah Gurbaz completed 1000 runs in the Twenty20 format when he went past his individual score of 17. Gurbaz needed 38 innings to achieve this milestone at an average of 26.36 and strike rate of 158.04.

Hazratullah Zazai was the fastest player to 1000 T20 runs among Afghanistan players who needed 29 innings only. Noor Ali Zadran and Usman Ghani are the other Afghan players to reach 1000 T20 runs faster than Gurbaz as they needed 37 innings apiece while Mohammad Shahzad also got to 1000 T20 runs in 38 innings.

Munaf makes his debut in Sri Lanka:

1 – The KAN vs GAL game was Munaf Patel’s first-ever T20 match on Sri Lankan soil. The Indian pacer featured in 11 List A matches between 2005 and 2010 in Sri Lanka but was never part of a first-class game or a Twenty20 match in this part of the world before LPL.

In fact, Munaf’s LPL debut marked his return to professional cricket since featuring in the 2017 edition of IPL. Jos Buttler was Munaf’s last wicket in professional cricket until he got the better of Hazratullah Zazai on Monday.