ICC World T20 2016, Stats: Afghanistan seal historic win as West Indies receive a wake-up call

Afghanistan created history by defeating West Indies in the Group 1 dead-rubber at the VCA Stadium in Nagpur on Sunday to register their first victory over a major Test playing nation at an ICC event. After falling short in their previous three matches, the Asian minnows finally managed to grab that elusive victory by defeating the Carribeans by six runs in a thriller.

Assured of a spot in the final-four stage after notching up three victories in as many matches, West Indies had made a few changes, with Chris Gayle being rested being the major one. After being put into bat by the opposition skipper Darren Sammy, Afghanistan could only put up 123 runs on the board but that proved to be enough in the end, as West Indies fell short by 6 runs.

Despite the loss, West Indies will head into the semi-finals as Group 1 table-toppers and will take on the winners of the match between India and Australia which will commence shortly. As for Afghanistan, the win will give them a huge boost of confidence and perhaps more importantly, will make the ICC stand up and take notice of the need of giving the associate nations more exposure at major global events.

Here are the major stats from the game:

1 – This is Afghanistan’s first victory over a major ICC Test playing nation and their first ever at the World T20. This was also their first meeting against the West Indies and they now hold a 100% record against the Carribeans in T20Is.

2 – The total of 123 defended by Afganistan is the second lowest ever winning total after batting first in T20Is. The lowest ever total successfully defended was 119 by Sri Lanka against New Zealand, back in 2012 at Hambantota.

4 – Evin Lewis became the fourth debutant at the ongoing World T20 when he took the field for West Indies against Afghanistan today. He follows Ryan Campbell (Hong Kong) Saqlain Sajib (Bangladesh) and Henry Nocholls (New Zealand) to get their first taste of international event during the course of this event.

7 – Evin Lewis had a debut to forget though as he was dismissed for a duck off a horrible looking slog sweep. He thus became the seventh West Indian to be dismissed for a nought on their debut joining the likes of Rawl Lewis, Dale Richards, N Deonarine, Darren Bravo, Andre Russell and Derwin Christian.

8 – West Indies skipper Darren Sammy has now won eight tosses in a row, the most for any captain in T20Is. He eclipsed the previous record of 7 held jointly by MS Dhoni, Mohammad Nabi and Eoin Morgan. Interestingly, Sammy had a horrendous luck with the coin in the lead-up to the World T20 losing the toss 10 times in 11 previous attempts.

20 – Number of wickets taken by West Indies spinner Samuel Badree in the powerplay overs in T20Is. This is more than half the total number of wickets (37) taken by the 35-year-old in T20 internationals.

9 – This one involves Badree as well but, this time, he is at the receiving end. When Afghanistan skipper Asghar Stanikzai smashed the West Indian for a huge six in Badree’s final over, he became only the ninth batsman to hit the former World No 1 T20 bowler for a maximum. To put things into perspective, Badree has bowled to more than eighty batsmen in the format and he proved how dangerous he is by picking up Stanikzai off the very next delivery.

20 – Afghanistan wicketkeeper Mohammad Shahzad joined elite company in the likes of MS Dhoni and Kumar Sangakkara with 20 stumpings in T20Is and now sit joint third along with the above legends. The top two spots are also held by Asian cricketers with Pakistan’s Kamran Akmal leading the pack with 32 while Bangladesh’s Mushfiqur Rahim has 23 stumpings in his name.

34 – West Indies will be looking at their batting department as the major reason for today’s loss and not surprising when you consider that the 34 runs scored during the power play overs were the joint lowest a team has scored against Afghanistan in Wolrd T20 matches. India had also scored the exact number of runs against them during the 2012 edition.