Shahid Afridi batted the way Shahid Afridi bats. Much like his bowling, there is a sense of urgency in his batting; the urgency to send the ball out of the park.
It doesn’t come off always, but when it does, the results are usually in favour of his side. With the bat in his hand, there are few who butcher the ball with as much raw strength as he does. Even as his powers have waned in the last few years, his show at the County Ground in Derby on Tuesday (August 22) was enough an evidence that his ability to put a display of brutality isn’t dead.
Sent out to open the innings for Hampshire after they were put into bat, the former Pakistan skipper blunted the Derbyshire bowling attack with a 43-ball 101 – his maiden T20 hundred. The carnage took a buffer of only one ball before starting as the first over of the match began with Wayne Madsen getting hit for four boundaries. The experiment with Madsen ended there as he didn’t return to bowl for the rest of the innings
Calvin Dickson took advantage of the superb start and played the ball on merit from the other end. He went on to face every delivery, barring one, in the partnership from thereon before being dismissed in the fifth over courtesy a one-handed stunner from Matt Henry, who ran backwards from mid on to take the catch.
But just when Derbyshire would have believed that they could turn the tide, Afridi was back at the crease – this time hitting Ben Cotton for consecutive sixes off the next two balls to restore the pace of the innings.
Just like Madsen and Cotton, even Hardus Viljoen and Henry didn’t get any respite. The ball was being sent over and across the boundary line at a frequency much more than what the hosts would have liked. With James Vince not trying anything silly at the other end, even wickets were tough to come by as the duo went on to plunder 103 runs off only 49 balls for the second wicket.
Afridi’s carnage eventually ended in the 13th over when his attempted pull shot off Henry caught the top edge and safely went into the hands of Cotton, who was stationed at fine leg. His knock included 10 fours and seven sixes, with the biggest hit being off Matthew Critchle in the 9th over – the ball landing on the roof of a building outside the deep mid wicket fence.
Vince took over the mantle of playing the aggressor after his departure. Unfortunately for him, he kept running out of partners from the other end. Brief blitz from George Bailey (11-ball 27), Liam Dawson (3-ball 10) and Tom Alsop (6-ball 14*) did help the team’s cause, as they powered the total to 249 for 8 in the 20 overs.
Gary Wilson, Derbyshire skipper, used as many as seven bowlers, and of the lot Imran Tahir (4-0-42-0) returned with the most economical figure – a proof of the mayhem caused. Vince’s contribution (36-ball 55) went largely overshadowed due to Afridi’s innings.
While the batting itself was enough to dent Derbyshire’s confidence, the pitch became slightly spiteful in the initial overs of their chase. In a bid to attack right from the go, they lost wickets early and the chase went off much before they would have liked. The openers – Billy Godleman and Matthew Critchley departed within the first nine balls of the innings.
Luis Reece and Viljoen tried to consolidate the innings, but with the required rate increasing at a spectacular speed, they were left with little option but to go after the bowlers. In doing so, the incoming batsmen had little time to settle in before going for their shots and the wickets kept falling at regular intervals.
Half way past the 15th over, the hosts had lost their top nine batters with only 105 runs on the board when a rare, and solitary, fighting stand was put up by the last wicket pair of Cotton (21-ball 30*) and Tahir (16-ball 23). The duo threw its bat around rather effectively, but with nothing concrete to gain. Their 46-run partnership only added to Derbyshire’s total and delayed the inevitable as Hampshire went on to register an 101-run win and book their spot in the semifinals of the NatWest T20 Blast.
Liam Dawson and Kyle Abbott bagged three wickets each, while Mason Crane returned a brace.
Brief Scores:
Hampshire 249/8 in 20 overs (Shahid Afridi 101, James Vince 55; Matthew Critchley 3-32, Ben Cotton 2-40) beat Derbyshire 148 in 19.5 overs (Ben Cotton 30; Kyle Abbott 3-25, Liam Dawson 3-28) by 101 runs
