Nottingham: Shaheen Afridi, the great pacer for Pakistan, astonished both spectators and analysts with his jaw-dropping performance on Friday while playing for Nottinghamshire in the T20 Blast. Afridi set a T20 match record for the most dismissals in the first over by taking four wickets in the very first over of the innings. This Blast season, Afridi has been in excellent form for Nottinghamshire; he leads the team and has taken 20 wickets in 13 games so far. The left-arm pacer extended his streak of reliable performances against the Bears with a superb opening over.
After bowling a five-wide to begin the over, the bowler dismissed Bears skipper Alex Davies for a golden duck on the first legitimate delivery of the innings. He then castled Chris Benjamin with an absolute peach.
Despite missing out on a hat-trick, Afridi managed to take two more wickets off the next two balls of the over. He first got rid of Dan Mousley, who gave Olly Stone a simple catch, before dismissing Ed Barnard again for a duck.
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Afridi's efforts, however, were in vain since despite the outstanding first over, Nottinghamshire was unable to capitalise on the momentum and suffered a two-wicket defeat. Jacob Bethell (27) and Jake Lintott (27*) both made important contributions in the lower-order to secure a victory for the Bears, while Robert Yates (65) held one end and guided most of the innings for the Bears.
While Afridi was unable to add to his total of wickets, he concluded the game with 4/29 in 4 overs.
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