Iftikhar Ahmed turned on beast mode in Fortune Barishal's clash against Rangpur Riders as he brought up his maiden T20 century. En route his T20 ton, Iftikhar took on his Pakistan teammate Haris Rauf and smashed him for three consecutive sixes in the penultimate over on January 19.
Before the 19th over was bowled, skipper Shakib Al Hasan was batting on 72 whereas Iftikhar had scored 70 runs. As Iftikhar got the strike on the third ball, he shuffled across and hit Rauf for a six over wide long-on. On the next delivery, Iftikhar flicked the ball over deep square leg fence. Rauf tried to bowl a short ball to counter Iftikhar but he pulled it behind square for another six.
Rauf conceded 24 runs in the penultimate over which spoiled his bowling figures. In the first three overs he bowled, Rauf gave just 18 runs and picked up the wicket of opener Anamul Haque and Ibrahim Zadran.
In the next over bowled by Mahedi Hasan, Iftikhar got to his century off the third ball. He took just 45 deliveries to breach the three figures. He became fourth Pakistan batter to score a century in BPL after Ahmed Shehzad, Usman Khan and Azam Khan.
Batting at no.6, the 32-year-old Pakistan batter hit six fours and nine sixes in his unbeaten 100. Iftikhar shared an unbeaten 192-run stand for the fourth wicket which is the highest in T20 history. On the other end, Shakib scored 89 runs from 43 balls including nine fours and six sixes. The record-breaking partnership helped Fortune Barishal post 238/4, the joint second-highest total in BPL history. The Shakib-led side won the match by a big margin of 67 runs.
In the post-match presentation, Iftikhar expressed his emotions as he said, “It was my dream to get a hundred in T20s. The situation was ideal and I went for it.”
The ‘Player of the match’ also talked about the rivalry with teammate Rauf. “There is no animosity. It was a true batting pitch and I took the attack to him,” the middle-order batter said.
