Afghanistan Player Creates New Record in Ongoing APL 2018

Hazratullah Zazai hits 6 Sixes in an over during APL 2018

Afghanistan youngster Hazratullah Zazai created history in the ongoing Afghanistan Premier League as he scored the joint-fastest fifty in T20 cricket and also managed to hit six sixes in an over in Kabul Zwanan's game against Balkh Legends earlier today.

Chasing 245 to win, Zazai gave his team the perfect start as he took on the Balkh Legends bowlers right from the word go. He sent them on a leather hunt as he hit four boundaries and seven sixes in his knock of 62 off just 17 balls. 

During the knock, he also equaled the record of Indian batsman Yuvraj Singh and West Indian opener Chris Gayle for hitting the fastest fifty in T20s, off just 12 balls. Yuvraj achieved this feat against England in the 2007 World T20 in Durban while Gayle did it for Melbourne Renegades against Adelaide Strikers in the 2016 Big Bash League.

During his innings of 62, Hazaratullah also went into the history books as he became the fifth batsman in the history of cricket to hit six sixes in an over in competitive cricket. 

In the fourth over of the innings, he took on Abdullah Mazari and hit him for 37 runs including six sixes and joined the elite list of Sir Garfield Sobers, Ravi Shastri, Herschelle Gibbs and Yuvraj Singh. Among these players, only Yuvraj has managed to do this in the T20 format before Hazaratullah joined him earlier today.

The southpaw hit Abdullah over the wide long-on for his first six and followed it up with two sixes over midwicket. With the fastest T20 fifty up for the grabs, he sent the fourth and fifth ball of the over long-off and square leg to reach the milestone. He finished off the over with a six over the bowler's head.

Unfortunately for him, this wasn't enough to see his team cross the line as a fine 80 from Chris Gayle, along with some fantastic bowling performances from Ben Laughlin (3/37), Mohammad Nabi and Qais Ahmed (1/27 each) helped Balkh beat Kabul by 21 runs.

Earlier in the tournament, Hazratullah Zazai smashed 124 off 55 balls against the Nangarhar Leopards and showed some glimpses of what he is capable of.

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