Twitter Reactions: Balkh Legends defend 245 runs despite Hazratullah Zazai's heroics

The 14th match of the ongoing Afghanistan Premier League (APL) has turned out to be record-breaking as the runs galore during the 40 overs. The Balkh Legends and Kabul Zwanan amassed close to 500 runs during the game and entertained the sparse crowd in Sharjah. The former team, somehow, managed to defend the total of 244 runs as Hazratullah Zazai wrecked havoc in their camp by smashing six sixes in a single over of Abdullah Mazari.

Chasing down the mammoth total, Kabul needed a good start from their openers, Zazai and Luke Ronchi. The duo didn’t disappoint as they added 86 runs for the opening wicket in less than six overs. Hazratullah Zazai smashed a 12-ball half-century to equal the world record of the fastest fifty in the T20 history. He joined the legendary list of Yuvraj Singh and Chris Gayle and went on to score 62 off just 17 balls.

But his wicket slowed down the scoring rate as Qais Ahmad was introduced into the attack who bowled a miserly spell. He also scalped a crucial wicket of Ronchi who was playing well on 47. The required rate kept on soaring with every over and though Rashid Khan and Colin Ingram batted bravely to bring down the equation to 29 off the final over, it proved to be too much for them in the end. Kabul fell agonisingly short of the target by 21 runs. But their effort to gun down the total was brilliant and should be lauded for the same.

Gayle storm hits Kabul

Chris Gayle stormed back into form today as he slammed 80 runs off just 48 balls with 10 massive sixes and only a couple of fours. He was well assisted by Dilshan Munaweera and Darwish Rasooli by scoring 46 and 50 runs respectively. The legends strangely made four changes to their side but it didn’t affect their run-scoring as even the skipper Nabi came out had some fun on a flat pitch and small ground.

He managed to whack three sixes and as many fours before getting out on 37 off 15 balls as the Legends ended up posting a mammoth total of 244 runs for the loss of five wickets which were eventually just enough in the end. The bowlers from both the side had a bad day as they had nothing to offer in response to the assault from the batsmen.

Here’s how Twitter reacted during the game:

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