Stats: Best T20I bowling figures in an innings by Associate players

Rashid Khan’s magical spell of 5 wickets for three runs puts him over the other associate bowler on the top of the best bowling figures for an associate bowler. Rashid Khan began the tour of Ireland on a high after getting picked by Sunrisers Hyderabad in the IPL Auctions for a huge sum of Rs 4 crores.

The amount of faith that the Sunrisers put on the young leggie shows the talent and ability of the spinner. The leggie’s spell of 5/3 was enough to restrict Ireland to a total of 93 runs for the loss of 9 wickets. Prior his spell, Ireland had the chance of levelling the game at one a piece.

Asghar Stanikzai had other plans and put his faith on the leggie who dismissed two batsmen in his first over. The leggie followed it with a triple-wicket maiden in his next over and wrapped the game against the reach of the Irish batsmen.

Afghanistan has emerged as one of the leading teams in the group of other Associate nations and this victory over Ireland has put them in driving position. The leggie’s performance has improved drastically from the last time he played on the global stage of T20 World Cup in India.

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The leggie has worked well on his googlies which are part of his arsenal. Kevin O’Brien was the first one to be dismissed by Rashid in the game thanks to the googly which tempted him to go for a biggie. Gary Wilson followed suit when he stepped down the wicket to a googly, which he clearly did not pick up giving Rashid his second wicket of the match.

Rashid looked terrifying on the wicket where the Irish spinner George Dockrell found it tough to get going. Rashid varied his pace inviting the batsmen to mistime the shot. Most of the world bowlers find it tough to get going under pressure, but it did not affect Rashid. Rashid loves to thrive under pressure, and this match was an accurate indication of what we could witness in the future.

The previous best record was held by Rashid’s team-mate and another leggie Samiullah Shenwari who picked up five wickets for 13 runs against Kenya four years ago, in Sharjah. The top two best bowling performance are the leggies, and this goes to show the importance and domination of a leggie in a T20 side.

The spell by the leggie has helped him push ahead of the hierarchy into the Sunrisers Hyderabad team on a turning track and would be a delight to the cricket fans.

Here are the top 10 best T20I bowling figures in an Innings by Associate players:

Stats updated till 10th March 2017