Shahzad smashes 74 off 16 balls in T10 Cricket League curtain-raiser

The 31-year-old is Afghanistan's all-time leading run-scorer in both ODI and T20 cricket, and showed exactly why as he took apart a Sindhis attack including the highly thought of Jofra Archer

Afghanistan wicketkeeper Mohammad Shahzad got the T10 Cricket League up and running in extraordinary fashion as he scored 74 off 16 balls - at an eye-watering strike rate of 462.50.

The 31-year-old is Afghanistan's all-time leading run-scorer in both ODI and T20 cricket, and showed exactly why as he took apart a Sindhis attack including the highly thought of Joffra Archer.

Rajputs were set a target of 95 by Sindhis, which Shahzad and his partner Brendon McCullum managed to chase down in just four overs (the length of the powerplay). The former New Zealand captain finished on a comparatively respectable 21 off 8.

^{Mohammad Shahzad is Afghanistan's all-time leading run-scorer in both ODI and T20 cricket}

In a style more seen in the game Stick Cricket, Shahzad showed he meant business from the off as he finished the first over from Mohammad Nawaz with 19, having scored three fours and a six (along with a single to get his eye in).

Nawaz actually ended up getting off the lightest as the Afghan slugger really got into his stride. He went past his 50 after 12 balls in the third over as he scored 30 off a single over from Sri Lanka's Thisara Perera. This included three sixes and three fours.

He finished the innings in even more emphatic style as he hammered three straight sixes off Australian bowler Fawad Ahmed to take Rajput to 26 and give them the most comfortable of wins.

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