Pakistani left-arm sensation Shaheen Afridi overtook former Green Shirts' bowler Mohammad Amir to become the left-arm pacer with the second most international wickets for Pakistan
The 23-year-old achieved the feat during the 18th match of the World Cup against Australia in Bengaluru on Friday.
Afridi had 259 wickets before Friday’s encounter against Australia, the same as Amir, and with his first two victims today, which were Mitchell Marsh and Glenn Maxwell, Shaheen officially overtook the 31-year-old and is now only behind the legendary Wasim Akram as the left-arm with most wickets for the Green Shirts.
Shaheen took a fifer today, taking his international wicket tally to 264, his victims were Mitchell Marsh, Glenn Maxwell, Marcus Stoinis, Mitchell Starc and Josh Hazlewood.
Afridi has now taken 264 international wickets in a total of 127 matches (145 innings) while Amir bagged 259 wickets in 147 matches (177 innings).
Meanwhile, Wasim Akram took 916 wickets with his magical left hand in 460 matches (532 innings).
Shaheen bagged his second World Cup five-wicket haul, having recorded figures of 6/35 against Bangladesh during the 2019 tournament, which made him just the second Pakistan player —after his father-in-law — Shahid Afridi to have two World Cup five-wicket hauls to his name.
Afridi's figures of 5/54 on Friday are also the best for any bowler thus far in the 2023 World Cup.
Pakistani bowlers — except Shaheen, Mohammad Nawaz and Iftikhar Ahmed — were taken to the cleaners by Australia’s opening duo of David Warner and Mitchell Marsh.
Australia were on their way to scoring 400 runs but Pakistan’s world-class effort at the death restricted the five-time World Champions under 370 and gave his batting side hope to chase down the target.
Warner and Marsh formed a 259-run stand and created history as that was Australia’s highest-ever opening stand in World Cup cricket. It was also the first time Pakistan conceded more than a 200-run partnership in World Cup cricket.
The opening stand was also Australia's second-highest for any wicket ever and the second-highest by any team ever.
Marsh scored 121 runs before Afridi dismissed him while Warner posted 163 on the scoreboard — the highest individual score against Pakistan in World Cup cricket, beating Andrew Symonds’ 143 in 2003.
Australia also became the team to score the most runs in an innings against Pakistan in the tournament's history, overtaking Sri Lanka who scored 344 earlier in the ongoing event in Hyderabad.
- Shaheen Afridi