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An opener from Pakistan, Shan Masood, has once again smashed the ball around the park in the T20 Blast with 73 runs in 32 balls, striking at a rate of 228.12. Masood, who plays for Derbyshire, helped his team chase down 182 runs in 19th over against Leicestershire.
Masood's innings included 11 fours and a six, with the Pakistani striking at a rate of 228.12. His prolific performances also meant that the opener was named as the skipper of Derbyshire, who are currently fifth on the North Group points table. Masood is only the second Pakistani cricketer after Wasim Akram to captain a side in England's domestic season.
Leicestershire were in a good position, with 114 runs and having lost just one wicket. Arron Lilley was their best batter on the night with his 67 from 41 balls. He kept the momentum going before losing his wicket to George Scrimshaw. After this, their batters lost their stride. Ben Mike was dismissed for a golden duck in successive short balls. This was followed by the wickets of Rishi Patel for an lbw off Alex Hughes' bowling. Hughes has now surpassed Matt Critchley (now at Essex) as Derbyshire's leading T20 wicket-taker.
Masood's last international appearance for Pakistan came in 2021, during a Test match against New Zealand in Christchurch. In limited overs, he last played against Australia in 2019, and the 32-year-old star opener is yet to make his T20I debut for the subcontinental country.
Ahead of Pakistan's ODI series against West Indies in Multan, the skipper shared his thoughts about Masood during a pre-match press conference. "Shan Masood bats at the top of the order and he has not batted lower down the order. I think it would be unfair for Shan to play him at (number) five or six. We have an eye on him and he will be considered taking the balance of the side into account,” he said.
This did not go down well with former Pakistan wicketkeeper-batter Rashid Latif, who said, “In the pre-match press conference, Babar Azam had said that he's not a middle-order batter, he's an opener. But the next day, Haris gets into the middle-order on the basis of his T20 performance. I didn't like it. I actually felt bad.”
Pakistan won their first ODI match against West Indies, with Babar scoring a brilliant century, his third consecutive one, and Pakistan took a 1-0 lead in the series.
