Pakistan v Sri Lanka 2017: 1st T20I – Statistical Highlights

Pakistan won the first T20I of the three-match series comfortably by 7 wickets with 16 balls to spare. Under their new captain Thisara Perera, Sri Lanka were bowled out for just 102 after they lost the toss. All the six bowlers used by Pakistan picked up wickets as the visiting team couldn’t play out their 20 overs. Despite a slow start by Pakistan’s top order, Shoaib Malik guided their side to victory with an unbeaten 42.

Here we look at all the stats and records created in the game:

6 – Number of bowlers who picked up a wicket for Pakistan in this game. This is the first time six different bowlers picked up at least one wicket each in a T20I for Pakistan.

7 – Number of captains who’ve led Sri Lanka in International cricket in 2017. These are the most number of captains for a team in a year across all formats. Zimbabwe and England had six captains each in 2001 and 2010 respectively.

9 – Thisara Perera is the 9th captain in T20I cricket for Sri Lanka. Only Australia (10) has had more captains in this format. England and South Africa also have been led by nine captains each in T20Is.

45 – Number of players who have played International cricket for Sri Lanka in 2017. These are the most number of players any team has fielded in Internationals in a calendar year. Pakistan in 2015, Australia and Sri Lanka in 2016 had featured 44 players.

58 –  The collective strike rate of Pakistan’s top three of 58 in this match is the 2nd lowest S/R for any team’s top three in a T20I match. (Min: 50 balls played) Windies’ top three had a SR of 54.9 against Zimbabwe in 2010 where they aggregated 28 runs in 51 balls.

60 – Number of matches Thisara Perera played in the T20I format before becoming the captain. Only David Warner (61) played more T20Is than Perera before captaining for the first time. Perera played under nine different captains in his 60 T20I games before this.

68.75 – Ahmed Shehzad’s batting strike rate of 68.75 is the joint lowest for any Pakistan player in a T20I inning. (Min: 20 runs scored) Salman Butt also had a SR of 68.75 during his 33* off 48 against Zimbabwe in 2008.

73 – Mahela Udawatte played his first T20I game after a gap of eight years and missed 73 T20Is for Sri Lanka. Only Liam Plunkett (74) missed more consecutive matches than Udawatte in T20I cricket.

374 – Number of consecutive International matches that Mahela Udawatte missed since his last appearance in September 2009. Only Windies’ Floyd Reifer (380) missed more consecutive Internationals for his team than Udawatte.