Rahmanullah Gurbaz joins Shahzad with 13th 50-plus score in T20Is
What's the story
West Indies denied Afghanistan a clean sweep in their three-match T20I series, winning the final match by 15 runs in Dubai. The victory was led by Shamar Springer, who took a hat-trick in the penultimate over of the game. Notably, the Afghan team was restricted to 136/8 in their 20 overs despite a stellar half-century from Rahmanullah Gurbaz. Here we look at his stats.
Knock
A fine hand from Gurbaz
Chasing 152 in Dubai, Afghanistan's openers, Gurbaz and Ibrahim Zadran, got off to a good start. The duo recorded a 74-run partnership before Zadran departed for 28. Though none of the other Afghan batters could enter double digits, Gurbaz continued to bat well at one end. He brought up his fifty off 44 balls. Gurbaz went down in the penultimate over as hat-trick hero Springer trapped him. As a result, Afghanistan fell short in the chase.
Elite list
Gurbaz accomplishes this feat
Gurbaz made 71 runs from 58 balls with the help of eight fours and a six. This was his 12th fifty in the T20I format, as he also owns a ton. With this, he has become the Afghan batter with the joint-second-most 50-plus scores in T20Is. He joined Mohammad Shahzad, who also retired with 13 such scores. Ibrahim Zadran, Gurbaz's current opening partner, leads the list with 14 50-plus scores. No other Afghan batter has even nine such scores.
Career
A look at his career stats
With this knock, Gurbaz has raced to 2,139 runs across 83 T20Is at an average of 25.77 (SR: 134.02). Mohammad Nabi (2,430) is the only Afghanistan player with more T20I runs. Gurbaz (114) and Nabi (123) also happen to be the only batters from their nation with 100-plus T20I sixes. Meanwhile, 166 of Gurbaz's runs have come in seven T20Is versus WI at 23.71 (50s: 2).
Information
Here are his T20 stats
Coming to his numbers in T20 cricket, Gurbaz has completed 6,244 runs from 258 matches at an average of 24.97. His strike rate is an impressive 145 as the tally now includes 39 fifties and a couple of hundreds.