Babar Azam’s diamond duck stands out in PSL 5 statistical second week round-up

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Fastest century, most sixes in an innings and biggest victory in terms of runs highlighted the second week of the HBL Pakistan Super League 2020.

With the race for the top-four spots of the points table intensifying, the fans are in for enthralling cricketing action over the course of the next week.

Statistician Mazher Arshad recaps the second week of the tournament.

Fastest century in HBL PSL

Multan Sultans batsman Rilee Rossouw smashed the record books with a 43-ball hundred – the fastest in the history of HBL PSL – against Quetta Gladiators at Multan Cricket Stadium.

The previous record belonged to Cameron Delport, who playing for Islamabad United knocked a century off 49 balls against Lahore Qalandars in Karachi last year.

Rossouw’s innings (100 not out off 44 balls) was the seventh century in the tournament and first by a Sultans’ batsman.

Most sixes in an innings

Quetta Gladiators were at the receiving end of another HBL PSL record when Lahore Qalandars’ Ben Dunk smashed 10 sixes in innings, the most by any batsman in the tournament history, at the Gaddafi Stadium. There was a phase in his innings when he hit eight sixes in the space of 12 balls.

Previously, maximum eight sixes had been struck in an HBL PSL innings and the record was shared by five batsmen – Umar Akmal, Sharjeel Khan, Kevin Pietersen, Kamran Akmal and Colin Ingram.

Dunk fell seven runs short of what could have been his first century in T20 cricket. He scored 93 off 43 balls.

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Most consecutive sixes

During the course of his swashbuckling innings, Dunk equaled the record of most consecutive sixes in HBL PSL.

He hit four maximums in a row off Mohammad Nawaz’s bowling in the 15th over of Lahore Qalandars’ innings.

The previous two batsmen to hit four sixes off four balls are: Shahid Afridi (for Karachi against Peshawar Zalmi in 2018) and Kieron Pollard (for Peshawar against Multan in 2019).

Dunk-Patel partnership

The partnership of 155 runs between Ben Dunk and Samit Patel, during Lahore Qalandars’ victory over Quetta Gladiators in Lahore, was the second highest in the history of the HBL PSL.

It was just two runs short of the highest partnership – 157 between Babar Azam and Liam Livingstone for Karachi Kings against Multan Sultans in Dubai in 2019.

The 100-run stand between Dunk and Patel came off just 47 balls making it the second fastest century-partnership in HBL PSL. The fastest was recorded off 44 balls by Quetta Gladiators’ pair of Sarfaraz Ahmed and Kevin Pietersen against Qalandars in Sharjah in the 2017 edition.

Dunk and Patel’s partnership helped Qalandars to add 148 runs in the last ten overs, which by far are the most any team has accumulated in 11-20 overs in HBL PSL. The previous highest tally for the second phase of the innings was 135 runs by Islamabad United against Lahore Qalandars in Karachi in 2019.

Lahore Qalandars end their losing streak

With a victory against Quetta Gladiators, Lahore Qalandars saved themselves from an eighth consecutive defeat. They lost the last four games in 2019 and started this year with three defeats.

The worst losing streak in HBL PSL is eight games, also recorded by Qalandars between 2017 and 2018.

Qalandars’ win against Gladiators in this tournament was their first ever win on Pakistan soil.

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HBL PSL’s biggest victory

Islamabad United registered the biggest victory - in terms of runs – with a 71-run over Lahore Qalandars.

After being put to bat, United, banking on Colin Munro’s 87 not out off 59 balls, piled 198 for three in 20 overs. Qalandars, in reply, were bowled out for 127.

It was also United’s sixth consecutive win against Qalandars in HBL PSL, a winning streak that goes back to the 2018 edition.

The Diamond Duck

Babar Azam (0 off 0) was run out without facing a ball against Islamabad in Rawalpindi, becoming the first opening batsman in HBL PSL to bag a diamond duck.

There are five other batsmen who have this unwanted record in the tournament but none of them was an opener – Imad Wasim (in 2016), Kevin Pietersen (in 2017), Kieron Pollard, Shadab Khan (both in 2018) and Ali Shafiq in 2019.

50 sixes in HBL PSL

Islamabad United’s hard-hitting batsman Asif Ali completed the half-century of sixes in HBL PSL in the 17th match of the ongoing edition. He is the only third batsman – after Kamran Akmal (75 sixes) and Shane Watson (77) – to reach this milestone.

Asif’s six-ball 20 not out cameo helped Islamabad to post a competitive total of 198 against Lahore.