Ali Ahmed
LAHORE (October 15, 2021):-The 18th edition of the National T20 completed with Khyber Pakhtunkhwa winning the title after beating Central Punjab by seven wickets in the final at Lahore’s Gaddafi Stadium on Wednesday.
Back-to-back titles for Khyber Pakhtunkhwa
After having won National T20, Pakistan Cup and being joint-winners of the Quaid-e-Azam Trophy in the last season, they have begun the 2021-22 season with another National T20 silverware.
Khyber Pakhtunkhwa are only the fourth team after Sialkot Stallions, Lahore Lions and Peshawar, to win back-to-back titles in the history National T20.
A new record for Sahibzada Farhan
Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s Sahibzada Farhan was a driving force behind his team’s title win. His 447 runs are the most by any batter in one edition of National T20, breaking Kamran Akmal’s record of 432 runs for Lahore Whites in 2017.
Farhan scored his runs at an average of 40.63, a strike-rate of 132.24 and with three 50s, including one in the semi-final against Northern. 2021 has been a terrific white-ball year for Charsadda-born batter as, at the start of the year, he also scored 487 runs at 54.11 and hit three centuries in the Pakistan Cup.
Iftikhar Ahmed’s numbers
Player of the tournament and the final had a dream run in this National T20. Iftikhar Ahmed scored 45 not out off 19 balls and took three wickets for five runs in the final against Central Punjab and finished the tournament with 409 runs and eight wickets at an economy of 5.57 (the best by anyone who bowled at least 10 overs in the tournament).
Iftikhar also hit 24 sixes, the most by anyone in this year’s edition, and had a tournament strike-rate of 170.41.
The most impressive aspect of Iftikhar’s runs scoring was his average of 102.25. The only batter in the tournament history with a higher average in one season is Salman Butt – 328 runs at 109.33 in the 2017 edition.
Wahab Riaz - the most prolific bowler
Wahab Riaz, who also captained Central Punjab in the absence of Babar Azam, became the most prolific bowler in National T20. During the course of his 12 wickets with an economy of 6.54, he went past Saeed Ajmal’s record of 89 wickets to become the highest wicket-taker in the tournament’s history.
Wahab now has 93 wickets at an average of 22.96 and an economy of 6.81.
Babar Azam’s records and milestone
Pakistan captain Babar Azam played only six games in this National T20 but that was enough for him to engrave his name in record books.
Babar scored 286 runs at an average of 71.50 and during his short stint he completed 7,000 runs in T20s from only 187 innings, the least taken by any batter to reach the milestone. He broke Chris Gayle’s record of 7,000 runs in 192 innings.
Babar also played an unbeaten knock of 105 off 63 balls against Northern becoming the first batter from Pakistan to register six centuries in the format. He went past the tally of Ahmed Shahzad and Kamran Akmal, who have five centuries each in T20 cricket.
