The player that we will be talking about now is one of the all time great all rounders of the modern game of cricket because he could single handedly win matches for Pakistan with bat in hand as well as with the ball. He was one heck of a character and he has the record of taking the most amount of retirements and then coming back as many times and as a result his age never increased and he just kept playing along for close to 20 years and what an entertainer he was hitting sixes for fun. Now that he has finally retired from international cricket we can celebrate this Legend.
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Shahid Afridi is one of those rarest players in ODI cricket who has scored over 8000 runs and taken 390+ Wickets and if that’s not one of the all time greatest all round cricketers I don’t know what is so that is the reason we will look at some of the best batting and bowling performances of Shahid Afridi to do justice to both his art forms. He, just like many of his Pakistan teammates and legends, liked playing against India a lot and performing well against them. So, let’s see the Top 5 Best Shahid Afridi Performances.
141 vs India (1999)
Shahid Afridi was only 19 years old and he was considered a white ball specialist for Pakistan but he broke all the myths with this incredible batting performance against India and showed that If we wanted then he could easily become a great test match player as well. This innings was full of class and he batted for 5 hours which is equal to 5 innings in ODIs where he bats for close to one hour so it was really impressive but his scoring rate did not change as he only took 191 balls to make those 141 runs and hand Pakistan a famous 12 run win in the test match.
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102 vs India (2005)
What does one say about this innings other than he brutalized India badly in this innings in 2005 at Indian soil. What he did in this innings was classic Shahid Afridi hitting fours and sixes at will and giving so much joy to all the Pakistan fans. Pakistan were chasing a good Target of 250 runs to win this match and in the opening stand of 131 he made 102 off those by smashing 10 fours and 9 monster sixes which means he scored 94 runs in boundaries and that is crazy. He got his hundred in just 45 balls and it was not his fastest ODI hundred. This was entertainment and the people were getting their money's worth.
102 vs Sri Lanka (1996)
Shahid Afridi was only 16 years old when he was a baby boy who was not legal to vote or drink even though he was legally allowed to give the greatest Sri Lankan team a beating that the cricket fans have not forgotten even now. It was his first innings in ODIs and what a statement he made. He was absolutely vicious in his assault and no one knew what hit then and the cricketing world was in shock with what they were witnessing. He obliterated the Sri Lankan bowling attack and smashed the then fastest ODI century from only 37 balls ,a record which would be with him for 19 years. He hit 6 fours and 11 mighty sixes which means he got 90 runs in boundaries. He did not like running much and why would he because his bat did all the hitting for him.
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7/12 vs West Indies (2013)
Shahid Afridi was one of the best leg spinners around the world and the batters were unable to play against him as he used to bowl so fast that they had no time to read him and get used to his bowling. His best ever bowling performance came against West Indies in the year 2013 when he was 17 years into playing cricket ai one can imagine for how long he dominated the game. Pakistan only got 224 in their 50 overs in this match and it looked like West Indies were going to win this but Lala but other plans. He came into the bowling attack and wickets started falling like ninepins and he decimated the West Indies by picking up 7/12 ,yes only 12 runs. What a special cricketer he was for Pakistan.
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6/38 vs Australia (2009)
The last incredible Shahid Afridi performance that we will talk about is the bowling masterclass he gave against one of the best in the world which is Australia and he did it in 2009. Australia were batting first in this ODI match abs Afridi did not allow the Aussies to get any sort of start and build on to get a good score as he kept picking up Wickets At regular intervals and he took a total of 6 wickets while only giving away 38 runs and Pakistan won that match quite comfortably.
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