4-3-1-2: Mohammad Irfan bowls most economical spell in T20 history

[UN talkz]

Mohammad Irfan has produced the most economical four-over spell in T20 history for Barbados Tridents in the Caribbean Premier League - but it wasn't enough to get his team over the line against St Kitts and Nevis. The towering Pakistan quick took two wickets and conceded just one run from his four overs against the Patriots in Bridgetown on Saturday (Sunday morning AEST). Incredibly, he bowled 23 dot balls before leaking a scampered single off his 24th and final delivery, finishing with figures of 4-3-1-2.

His economy rate of 0.25 bettered the previous four-over best of 0.5 bowled by Chris Morris for the Cape Cobras in South Africa’s Ram Slam in November 2014, and by Chanaka Welegedara for Tamil Union in Sri Lanka in April 2015. Irfan captured the key wicket of Chris Gayle with the first ball of the innings, following up with the scalp of fellow opener Evin Lewis in his second over. He beat the bat a total of 17 times and drew one edge, with the St Kitts pair of Brandon King and Devon Thomas at a loss as to how to handle the giant quick.

The end of Irfan’s spell brought relief for the St Kitts pair, who recovered to put on 88 runs for the third wicket – including 27 runs from one horror Steve Smith over, which included four sixes. They added 59 runs in the space of 15 deliveries as King reached his maiden CPL half-century from 42 deliveries, while Thomas struck 32 (29) of his own before being bowled by Wahab Riaz.

King eventually perished for 60 off 49 in the 16th over, but Ben Cutting picked up where he left off striking 29no from 21 to see St Kitts to victory by four wickets with seven balls to spare. Earlier, the Tridents posted 6-147 courtesy of a half-century from Jason Holder (54 off 35), helped by 26 off 24 from compatriot Shai Hope. Coming in at No.6, former Australia captain Smith found the boundary first ball with a reverse sweep but he couldn’t add to his tally, dismissed on the third ball he faced.

https://www.cricket.com.au/news/mat...ricket-cpl-barbados-smith-st-kitts/2018-08-26

 

[UN talkz]

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">What a performance from Mohammad Irfan to take the <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Playoftheday?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Playoftheday</a> crown at match 16 of <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/CPL18?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#CPL18</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Cricketplayedlouder?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Cricketplayedlouder</a> <a href="https://t.co/U9ZGC8J5v2">pic.twitter.com/U9ZGC8J5v2</a></p>— CPL T20 (@CPL) <a href="https://twitter.com/CPL/status/1033564668772544512?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 26, 2018</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

 

[Friend786]

Irfan towers over Holder who is 6'8

 

[Smbhayi]

Mohammad Irfan has produced the most economical four-over spell in T20 history for Barbados Tridents in the Caribbean Premier League - but it wasn't enough to get his team over the line against St Kitts and Nevis. The towering Pakistan quick took two wickets and conceded just one run from his four overs against the Patriots in Bridgetown on Saturday (Sunday morning AEST). Incredibly, he bowled 23 dot balls before leaking a scampered single off his 24th and final delivery, finishing with figures of 4-3-1-2.

His economy rate of 0.25 bettered the previous four-over best of 0.5 bowled by Chris Morris for the Cape Cobras in South Africa’s Ram Slam in November 2014, and by Chanaka Welegedara for Tamil Union in Sri Lanka in April 2015. Irfan captured the key wicket of Chris Gayle with the first ball of the innings, following up with the scalp of fellow opener Evin Lewis in his second over. He beat the bat a total of 17 times and drew one edge, with the St Kitts pair of Brandon King and Devon Thomas at a loss as to how to handle the giant quick.

The end of Irfan’s spell brought relief for the St Kitts pair, who recovered to put on 88 runs for the third wicket – including 27 runs from one horror Steve Smith over, which included four sixes. They added 59 runs in the space of 15 deliveries as King reached his maiden CPL half-century from 42 deliveries, while Thomas struck 32 (29) of his own before being bowled by Wahab Riaz.

King eventually perished for 60 off 49 in the 16th over, but Ben Cutting picked up where he left off striking 29no from 21 to see St Kitts to victory by four wickets with seven balls to spare. Earlier, the Tridents posted 6-147 courtesy of a half-century from Jason Holder (54 off 35), helped by 26 off 24 from compatriot Shai Hope. Coming in at No.6, former Australia captain Smith found the boundary first ball with a reverse sweep but he couldn’t add to his tally, dismissed on the third ball he faced.

https://www.cricket.com.au/news/mat...ricket-cpl-barbados-smith-st-kitts/2018-08-26

should have been a different thread for his performance..

 

[Zeshan547]

should have been a different thread for his performance..

Yup This deserve a separate thread, Dont See anyone bowling four maidens in T20 in proper level t20 cricket, Unbelievable, Only if Lambu was 10 year younger and a little better fielder.

 

[Mainul]

Mohammad Irfan bowls most economical spell in T20 history

4-3-1-2 ,if anybody see this surely he will think anything other than a T20 bowling figure. But it's a T20 figure of a fast bowler. And its Irfan of Pakistan.Last night in CPL he broke the record of most economical bowling in T20 ever made previously by Chris Morris of SA. Chris Morris's record was in Ram Slam league and his bowling figure was 4-3-2-2. Irfan's figure could have easily 4-3-0-2 had not the batsman took the only single in the 24 th delivery of Irfan .What a performance, just amazing

 

[Adnan_Ilyas]

Bloody hell thats amazing

 

[Madplayer]

This means Irfan's 1st 23 balls were dots and the last ball went for a run? Thats incredible.

 

[Mainul]

This means Irfan's 1st 23 balls were dots and the last ball went for a run? Thats incredible.

Yes, you are not wrong.First two overs were wicket maidens, third one was maiden over, first 5 deliveries of 4th over were dots and 6th one(why why you took that single???) went for a single.

 

[Arfan Shafiq]

[utube]VMMN7K9Dhxs[/utube]

 

[Finisher]

Wow

 

[barah_admi]

Irfan is still a very good limited overs bowler. I'm not sure why he is not picked for the Pakistan side.

 

[Zaz]

Irfan is still a very good limited overs bowler. I'm not sure why he is not picked for the Pakistan side.

Tbh hes a very limited bowler Apart from some bounce from his height he doesnt do anything with the ball Hes a poor fielder and a genuine no 11

He doesnt have much going for him tbh

 

[Abid Z]

Tbh hes a very limited bowler Apart from some bounce from his height he doesnt do anything with the ball Hes a poor fielder and a genuine no 11

He doesnt have much going for him tbh

I think he can still command a place in the t20 squad and sometimes just having bounce off a good length and a speed of high 80mph is challenging enough provided the line is good. He is an awful fielder with poor fitness for anything other than t20’s unless he has improved drastically since we last saw him in national colours. I seem to remember him swinging it in cold and overcast Delhi against India so maybe he’s not a one trick pony and when conditions suit in South Africa he will be quite a handful.

 

[Mamoon]

Fluke spell. Irfan was finished years ago, and he will never play for Pakistan again.

 

[Iddy]

Fluke spell. Irfan was finished years ago, and he will never play for Pakistan again.

You can't just fluke 23 deliveries!

 

[super hitter]

Are these bowling figures or a football formation.

 

[silentkiller187]

Fluke spell. Irfan was finished years ago, and he will never play for Pakistan again.

Not everything done well by Pakistanis is a fluke.

 

[world cup captain]

You can't just fluke 23 deliveries!

Huh? Why can't you fluke 23 deliveries when a team can fluke an entire tournament?

 

[Sherlock]

Tbf the CPL batting quality has been atrocious, barring a couple of good batsmen, so it's difficult to ascertain just how good that spell actually was.

 

[Pete Rose]

He doesn’t have the stamina for odi/test cricket and the fitness for t20. But should continue to play leagues

 

[MenInG]

 

[Darkrai]

What the....Shoaib Malik and Zulfiqar Babar...

 

[Justcrazy]

He is ideal for 20 20 .

In 20 20 his 4 overs can be very crucial.

 

[finalfantasy7]

Can someone upload the whole 4 over spell

 

[the_outsider]

You can't just fluke 23 deliveries!

Not saying Irfan's spell was a fluke but those stats posted by [MENTION=93712]MenInG[/MENTION] does indicate that it is possible to fluke 4 overs.

Apart from Morris and Irfan, not a single bowler out of those 5 is anything to write home about.

 

[ChuckLee]

Fluke spell. Irfan was finished years ago, and he will never play for Pakistan again.

Was gonna post this as a joke but you beat me

 

[Minnowbasher]

In these mickey mouse 2020 tournaments even wahab looks world class and imad seems unplayable even though the reality is different.

 

[iniqbal223]

I think he can still command a place in the t20 squad and sometimes just having bounce off a good length and a speed of high 80mph is challenging enough provided the line is good. He is an awful fielder with poor fitness for anything other than t20’s unless he has improved drastically since we last saw him in national colours. I seem to remember him swinging it in cold and overcast Delhi against India so maybe he’s not a one trick pony and when conditions suit in South Africa he will be quite a handful.

True, but that was 5 years back. He is good bowler for T10 cricket where you need 2 overs spell, and #11 may not even need to bat. He has the same problem, other Pakistani cricketers have. They look great when they enter the national team, after that they do not care to improve themselves, and remain the same one trick ponies.

When he arrived in 2012, he looked an impact player, after that nothing happened. He did not even work on bowling full.

 

[Mainul]

Fluke spell. Irfan was finished years ago, and he will never play for Pakistan again.

You have become a specialist of fluke i see

 

[ManFan]

Irfan should have debuted at least 5 years before 2012, which at the age of 28, was far too late for a fast bowler to make his entrance into world cricket.

Had it not been for Nadeem Iqbal spotting him, he would still be earning three dollars a week.

 

[Kroll]

Irfan strikes back! Outrageous performance.

 

[Hasan123]

Very good spell of bowling.

 

[Mamoon]

Irfan should have debuted at least 5 years before 2012, which at the age of 28, was far too late for a fast bowler to make his entrance into world cricket.

Had it not been for Nadeem Iqbal spotting him, he would still be earning three dollars a week.

He debuted in England in 2010 in the ODI series. He was very poor and Afridi publicly criticized him. He was out of the team for two years before making a comeback in India in 2012/2013.

I don’t think he was ready for international cricket before that. When he returned in late 2012, he was a considerably better bowler than what we saw in 2010. He was still quite overrated though, and it was funny when people thought that he was going to be unplayable on the Australian pitches in the 2015 World Cup.

Irfan played for Pakistan as much as he could, but he should have never played a Test match. I remember threads on PP on how he was being treated unfairly by not getting a call-up to the Test team, but two games into his Test debut and we saw why it was good for him and good for Pakistan to keep out of Test cricket.

 

[barah_admi]

Tbh hes a very limited bowler Apart from some bounce from his height he doesnt do anything with the ball Hes a poor fielder and a genuine no 11

He doesnt have much going for him tbh

His bowling, which is his primary suit, is what he has going for him. He gets more than just bounce and balls a very good yorker, for someone so tall that is a great skill to have. As a first change bowler and overs in the middle of the match, he was always very economical. With the likes of Amir, Hasan, Raees, Faheem, he would fit well into the attack and could/should be part of the rotation policy.

 

[kuskash]

Great spell, unfortunately it will go down in stats as in domestic league. Wish that was in international cricket.

 

[topspin]

Try beating that - Irfan has set the bar here, brilliant stuff from him! If only he didn't have fitness issues who knows what he could have done against Australia in the WC QF 3 years ago. Instead we had a dud like Rahat who was awful with the bowl and dropped quite possibly the match.

 

[Savak]

Unfortunately Irfan started his career too late for Pakistan. Also his fitness and training regime was badly mismanaged under Waqar but he was doing fine under Whatmore.

Lol Mickey Arthur wanted nothing to do with him because he knows Irfan can now no longer be 100% fit or effective as per his standards.

 

[Savak]

He debuted in England in 2010 in the ODI series. He was very poor and Afridi publicly criticized him. He was out of the team for two years before making a comeback in India in 2012/2013.

I don’t think he was ready for international cricket before that. When he returned in late 2012, he was a considerably better bowler than what we saw in 2010. He was still quite overrated though, and it was funny when people thought that he was going to be unplayable on the Australian pitches in the 2015 World Cup.

Irfan played for Pakistan as much as he could, but he should have never played a Test match. I remember threads on PP on how he was being treated unfairly by not getting a call-up to the Test team, but two games into his Test debut and we saw why it was good for him and good for Pakistan to keep out of Test cricket.

Irfan fitness was not shaky in 2013 when he was playing under Whatmore, he was getting better with every game but he was played excessively and eventually he broke down in that inconsequential T-20 game against South Africa in 2013.

He was then out of the game for a long time and returned at the end of 2014 but his pace was no longer the same and his fitness always remained shaky after that. I have question marks as to whether his fitness, training regime was mismanaged by the regime back then, I would not put it beyond Waqar with his D over training regime and principles to mismanage a player whose body is ill suited for army like training.

 

[Savak]

Also looking at Irfan's bowling action, I feel he doesn't really get the best out of his height and isn't really banging it in as hard as he could. Look at Steve Harmison in comparison who really hit the deck hard, Irfan in comparison just ambled in

 

[Kroll]

Like a lot of good players, he was introduced too late into Pakistan team, approaching his thirties. If he was there a few years earlier, fitness and impact could have been much greater.

 

[ManFan]

He debuted in England in 2010 in the ODI series. He was very poor and Afridi publicly criticized him. He was out of the team for two years before making a comeback in India in 2012/2013.

I don’t think he was ready for international cricket before that. When he returned in late 2012, he was a considerably better bowler than what we saw in 2010. He was still quite overrated though, and it was funny when people thought that he was going to be unplayable on the Australian pitches in the 2015 World Cup.

Irfan played for Pakistan as much as he could, but he should have never played a Test match. I remember threads on PP on how he was being treated unfairly by not getting a call-up to the Test team, but two games into his Test debut and we saw why it was good for him and good for Pakistan to keep out of Test cricket.

Thanks for the correction.

But even still, if he had been introduced to cricket earlier like Ambrose (who started playing at 20) then there would have been a longer career.

Regardless, big guys like that always have a problem with fitness in any sport.

 

[Markhor]

Congratulations to him.

Irfan was a trier who had a good run but as soon as you got past the novelty of a 7ft bowler opposition batsmen adjusted to him. He got carried away with bowling a short length and his poor fitness meant he broke down too often.

Arthur wants players who can contribute in two areas - if you're a specialist batsman or bowler you must deliver as a fielder field too, but Irfan always had to be hidden in the field.

He had a good run around 2012-13 but maybe would've had a longer, more successful career had he entered the sport at an earlier age and grew up with the game.

 

[hafizexpress]

Thanks for the correction.

But even still, if he had been introduced to cricket earlier like Ambrose (who started playing at 20) then there would have been a longer career.

Regardless, big guys like that always have a problem with fitness in any sport.

Not really, there are several big guys like him in the NBA and most are fit and athletic. Irfan's massive and tall body was too much for him. You need to eat really well anddo a lot of exercize consistently to maintain that body and continue playing pro sports, which Irfan was unable to do.

 

[happydavy]

This can't be right. Mitchel Johnson bowled a spell of 4-2-3-3 i.e 3 runs for 3 wickets in last year BBL.

http://www.espncricinfo.com/series/8044/scorecard/1023645

 

[MenInG]

 

[Abdullah719]

 

[Rana]

He is proving to be a larger than life T20 bowler these days. Good to see this!

 

[FearlessRoar]

At 41 years old and still going strong, he is representing Durdanto Dhaka against Comilla Victorians in BPL 2024. If he gets the ball in the power play, he will likely take some wickets.

 

[sweep_shot]

Surprised he didn't play more games for Pakistan.

His height is an advantage for him.

 

[FearlessRoar]

At 41 years old and still going strong, he is representing Durdanto Dhaka against Comilla Victorians in BPL 2024. If he gets the ball in the power play, he will likely take some wickets.

Mohammad Irfan is naturally an opening bowler. Not giving him the ball in the Powerplay has cost Durdanto Dhaka as Comilla Victorians win by 4 wickets.

Mohammad Irfan bowled the last over, but he couldn't save Dhaka. He secured bowling figures of 1/24 in 2.5 overs in the BPL.