Shaheen Afridi bowled a breathtaking opening over as he took four wickets in his first over for Nottinghamshire on Friday against Birmingham in T20 Blast. In doing so, he became the first bowler claim four wickets in the opening over of a T20 innings.
While defending a total of 169 runs, Afridi made a sloppy start to the over by giving five runs through a wide delivery.
However, he returned with a bang on the next ball, as he trapped Alex Davies lbw by an inswinging Yorker.
Shaheen was on a hat-trick as he also clean bowled Chris Benjamin on the next ball.
The left-arm pacer couldn’t complete his hat-trick but struck on the fifth bowl of the over, as he removed Dan Mousley, courtesy of a stunning catch by Olly Stone at short cover.
Shaheen ended the over with another excellent delivery as he plucked out the off stump of Ed Barnard, leaving Birmingham reeling at 7-4 after the first over of their innings.
Shaheen Afridi, you cannot do that!! ? https://t.co/ehXxmtz6rX pic.twitter.com/wvibWa17zA
— Vitality Blast (@VitalityBlast) June 30, 2023
Despite Shaheen’s heroics, Birmingham went onto chase the target, courtesy of a brilliant 65-run knock by Rob Yates. Afridi finished with figures of 4/29 after four overs.
While talking about his first over, Shaheen said, “I had never before taken four wickets in my first over. Though winning the game would have been much better, it still felt amazing. We, unfortunately, came up short.”
