Stats: Band-e-Amir Dragons storm into finals with a 3-run win in a high-scoring game

Band-e-Amir Dragons settled scores with Kabul Eagles who defeated them by a big margin in the opening game of the Shpageeza Cricket League 2019. The Dragons sealed a 3-run win during the 2nd qualifier game that recorded a total of 447 runs. The defending champions posted 226/2 in their 20 overs as Imran Janat’s unbeaten 115 was well supported by Javed Ahmadi’s 77. The Eagles stood with a great chance of chasing down the total with wickets in hand. The Kabul team lost wickets of the set batsmen when the equation came down to 12 runs from 8 balls and fell four runs short of the target.

All the statistical highlights from the high-scoring Qualifier match in Kabul on Thursday:

0 – Number of team totals in excess of 210 in the Shpageeza Cricket League prior to this game. Band-e-Amir Dragons posted 225/2 while Kabul Eagles replied with 222/6 on Thursday. The highest team total in SCL before this match was 209/4 by Kabul Eagles in the tournament opener also against BEAD. The Boost Defenders’ total of 201/6 against Mis Ainak Knights in 2017 is the only other 200+ total in SCL.

4 – Imran Janat became the 4th player to score a century in Shpageeza cricket league. Javed Ahmadi (117*) also for BEAD on Monday and Karim Janat (120) for Kabul Eagles on Wednesday; scored hundreds this week in the Shpageeza. Cameron Delport scored exactly 100 during the 2017 edition match for the Boost Defenders against Mis Ainak Knights.

4 – Rashid Khan has captained a team in four multi-national team tournaments in the Twenty20 format. All the teams he led found a place in the finals of those four tournaments. Rashid’s team Band-e-Amir stood as winners of SCL 2017 while Kabul Zwanan in APL T20 2018 finished runners-up. The recent T20I Tri-series in Bangladesh was shared after the final was washed out.

25 – Number of sixes hit by both sides in this game; the most number of sixes in a Shpageeza game. The opening game of this tournament also between Kabul and Band-e-Amir witnessed 21 sixes, the previous most in an SCL game. The match between Mis Ainak Knights and Speen Ghar Tigers also had 21 sixes hit by both teams.

The Band-e-Amir Dragons alone struck 14 maximums the most by a team in an SCL game. The previous most were 12 maximums by Kabul Eagles against Amo Sharks. Imran Janat’s 8 sixes are also the joint-most by any individual in an SCL match.

176 – The 176-run partnership between Javed Ahmadi and Imran Janat is the 2nd highest partnership in the Twenty20 format 2nd wicket which began at the score of 0/1. The previous highest was 188 by Brendon McCullum and Neil Broom for Otago. Hamish Rutherford was runout for a duck in the first over of the chase against Northern Districts in the 2011/12 HRV Cup.

222/6 – Kabul Eagles finished with a total of 222/6 despite the highest individual score in the innings was only 53 by Karim Janat. Only three other teams in Twenty20 history have posted bigger totals where the individual scores were as less as 53.

Somerset (HS: 45) scored 226/5 against Kent last year despite no player scoring a fifty. Austria (239/3 in 2019) against Luxembourg and Somerset (228/5 in 2005) against Gloucestershire recorded bigger totals with highest individual scores of 53.

445 – A total of 445 runs were scored by both the sides in this game; the first-ever Twenty20 game to aggregate 400+ in Afghanistan. Overall, this match’s aggregate is the joint 10th highest in a Twenty20 game hosted by Asia. Had Kabul Eagles chased down the target, it would have been the joint 6th highest T20 chase.