Shahid Afridi scores a 43-ball century in England

Former Pakistan skipper and all-rounder Shahid Afridi scored 101 from just 43 balls in the NatWest T20 blast match playing for Hampshire against Derbyshire in an innings that included ten boundaries and seven sixes.

Hampshire promoted the 37-year-old Afridi to open the batting in this match and he along with the wicket keeper batsman Calvin Dickinson scored 43 runs for the first wicket.

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They went on to score a total of 249 in 20 overs which also included a fifty from the captain James Vince.

“I asked the captain and coach yesterday if I could bat higher up the order because seven or eight is not my position,” said Afridi after the match.

The swashbuckling batsman from Pakistan scored his first T20 century in 256 matches before he was dismissed off a short delivery in the bowling of New Zealand fast bowler Matt Henry.

He was struggling with his form heading into the match, scoring just 50 runs in seven innings.

This was the highest T20 score for Hampshire, their previous best being 225 vs Middlesex in 2016 and it was also the eighth highest T20 score in history.

Derbyshire slumped to 58-7 while chasing a target of 250. They were torn apart by the Hampshire bowling attack and were dismissed for 148.

Their total would have been even more embarrassing if Imran Tahir and Ben Cotton wouldn’t have put up a 46-run 10th wicket partnership.

Afridi is well-known for his explosive style of batting and held the record for the fastest century in ODI cricket in 37 balls for a long time before it was broken by Corey Anderson who scored a century in 36 balls in 2014.

Two-time winners Hampshire will now take part in their seventh Finals Day in the last eight years at Edgbaston on 2 September.