Shahid Afridi takes hat-trick in T10 League, including wicket of Virender Sehwag

Shahid Afridi gave the T10 League in Sharjah a glorious start by picking up three wickets from his first three balls to take a hat-trick on the very first day of the tournament. By picking up wickets of Rilee Rossouw, Dwayne Bravo and Maratha Arabians’ captain Virender Sehwag, Afridi created history for the tournament on the opening day itself of the tournament which is being played in the Middle East. Pakhtoons, captained by Afridi, ran away with a 25 run winning margin in the second match of the day.

Later, while being interviewed as the Man of the Match, Afridi was queried by Ramiz Raja on creating the magic even at this age (37). “What do you mean still performing at this age , I am still young,” said Afridi with a chuckle.

In the smash-and-grab style even faster than the T20 matches that everyone is used to, Pakhtoons batted first and scored 121/4 in the 10 overs with Fakhar Zaman and Liam Dawson shining in a 80-run stand. Zaman remained unbeaten on 45 and got support at the other end from Liam Dawson in 44 run knock. Imad Wasim took the two wickets from the allowed two overs.

In reply, Alex Hales gave Maratha Arabians a glorious start and remained in the middle till the end during his 57-run knock. But, none of the other teammates stuck around and by the end of things, Arabians stood on 96/7 to fall short.

The other match of the day featured, the first of the tournament, saw Kerala Kings beating Bengal Tigers by 8 wickets with 12 balls to spare.

Despite the short format of the games, around 11,000 of the 14,500 seats at the Sharjah Cricket Stadium were packed with fans eager to see the likes of Afridi and Sehwag in their element. The affiliation by the fans was made clear by the fact that thousands donned the yellow jersey with “10 Afridi” written on the back.

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