Continuing with his stellar run of form in the T20 format, Pakistan and Islamabad United batter Azam Khan was at his absolute lethal best against Quetta Gladiators tonight at the National Stadium in Karachi, in the ongoing Pakistan Super League(PSL) 2023.
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Coming in to bat during the 7th Over with the scorecard reading 43/3, Khan got off to a sedate start but soon began maneuvering his off-side by consistently playing some beautiful inside-out shots against pacers and spinners alike to gradually improve his strike rate
Post stitching together a half-century stand alongside Asif Ali (42 off 24), Khan started pelting the bowlers black and blue especially during the death Overs, to take the Islamabad total to a massive 220/6 in their 20 Overs.
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Before eventually getting bowled off the final delivery of the innings, the 24-year-old had managed to notch up 97 individual runs off mere 42 deliveries, with the help of 9 Fours and 8 Sixes.
On one particular delivery bowled by Mohammad Hasnain during the 19th Over, he sat on one knee and nonchalantly slog-swept the pacey delivery towards the square leg fence for a 102 m maximum, leaving the entire stadium slack-jawed.
Moin Khan son Azam Khan misses PSL fastest century record
Had he smashed a boundary off the final delivery of the innings, Azam would have registered the record for the fastest PSL century ever. The record is currently by Rilee Rossouw, who had smashed a 43-ball century during the 2020 edition of the league.
The highlight of his innings tonight was not only his strike rate of 230.95, but the fact that he scored 84 of his 97 runs in boundaries. That’s 86.5% of his runs in boundaries!
Interestingly, his innings tonight was against the Gladiators, whose head coach is former Pakistan wicket-keeper batter Moin Khan, and who also happens to be Azam Khan’s father.
Moin was indeed a fish out of water while watching his son demolish his team tonight. While he did applaud his son’s knock, he hilariously did so without displaying any emotion on his face, as the rest of the Gladiators’ players and suppot staff stood stone-faced as well.
When you make your dad proud 🥹#SabSitarayHumaray l #HBLPSL8 l #QGvIU pic.twitter.com/9sVWHkOByQ
— PakistanSuperLeague (@thePSLt20) February 24, 2023
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