Stats: Hazaratullah Zazai scores a 12-ball fifty in the Afghanistan Premier League T20

Hazaratullah Zazai set the Afghanistan Premier League on fire with a swashbuckling fifty in the game against Balkh Legends on Sunday. Playing for the Kabul Zwanan, the opening batsman struck 62 in only 17 deliveries with seven sixes and four fours. He put on an 86-run opening stand with Luke Ronchi in only 5.5 overs while chasing Balkh’s total of 244/6. Zazai earlier recorded the first century of APL when he was up against Nangarhar Knights last week.

Zazai took on Abdullah Mazari in the 4th over by hitting him for six sixes. The left-arm spinner ended up conceding as many as 37 runs in the over that included a wide. Thus, Zazai became only the 3rd player to hit six sixes in an over in a Twenty20 match. India’s Yuvraj Singh did it in the 2007 WT20 game against Stuart Broad while Ross Whiteley of England did it in a T20 Blast game last year. Karl Carver was on the receiving end of Whiteley’s destruction resulting in a 37-run over as he had also conceded a wide.

The interesting fact about all these three instances is that all the three batsmen are left-handers. Zazai, with his 5th six off Mazari, completed his fifty in only 12 deliveries. Thus, he equalled the record for the fastest fifty in the Twenty20 cricket jointly held by another two left-handers. Yuvraj Singh completed his fifty in 12 deliveries when he hit six sixes in an over. Chris Gayle levelled this record when he completed his fifty in the same number of deliveries during the 2015/16 BBL game.

Interestingly, the next fastest fifty in this format came off 13 balls from Marcus Trescothick’s bat, who is also a left-hander. The former England player recorded this in 2010 during an England domestic T20 game. During his century last week, Zazai brought up his fifty in only 17 balls which is the fastest T20 fifty by an Afghanistan player and also the fastest in Sharjah and UAE. All these records lasted only five days before Zazai surpassed them by himself.

Fastest fifties in Twenty20 cricket:

(Stats as on October 14, 2018)

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