Stats: Shahid Afridi breaks record for most innings to score maiden T20 century
The decision to promote Shahid Afridi to open the innings worked wonders for Hampshire as the Pakistan all-rounder smashed a 42-ball century to help them reach the semi-final of the Natwest T20 Blast. Courtesy of his century, Hampshire posted 249 and ended up beating Derbyshire by 101 runs in the quarter-final.
In the process, the evergreen all-rounder also broke a slew records, here is a complete list of all them.
0 - No batsman had taken longer to score their maiden T20 century than Shahid Afridi. He took 222 innings to get there, beating the previous record held by his compatriot Umar Akmal, who took 187 innings.
1 - Afridi became the first player from Pakistan to score 200 T20 sixes. He was the 32nd batsman overall to cross 200 sixes and his tally of 205 helps him take the 30th spot on the list of most sixes in T20s.
2 - Afridi's 42-ball century is the second-fastest T20 ton hit by a Pakistan batsman. Ahmed Shehzad's 40-ball century for Barisal Burners in the Bangladesh Premier League is the Pakistan record.
3 - Only three players have more Man of the Match awards in T20s than Afridi's 27. Chris Gayle (48), David Warner and Luke Wright (28).
4 - Afridi has four 50-plus scores in T20s in England, all of which have come in knockout matches. Two of them have come for Hampshire, while the other two were for Pakistan in the semi-final and final of the 2009 World T20.
6 - Afridi is the sixth-oldest player to score a T20 century. At 37 years and 174 days, he is the oldest Pakistani player to achieve this feat. The oldest to score a T20 century is England's World T20-winning captain Paul Collingwood (41 years and 65 days).
8 - Hampshire's tally of 249 is the eighth highest T20 total. It also beat the previous Hampshire record of 225 and is the fourth-highest in the T20 Blast.
9 - Courtesy of his century, Afridi became only the ninth player to score a century in first-class, list-a and T20s while also picking up a five-wicket haul in all three formats. The others to have done are Andrew Symonds, Dan Christian, Jim Allenby, Azhar Mahmood, Ravi Bopara, Elton Chigumbura, Collins Obuya and Paul Collingwood.
20 - Afridi's fifty, which came off 20 balls was his fastest in T20s, beating the 27-ball fifty he scored for Peshawar Zalmi in the Pakistan Super League, earlier this year.
176.05 - Afridi's strike-rate as an opening batsman in T20s is the best among all openers to have scored at least 500 runs. In his 21 innings as an opener, the 37-year-old has scored 544 runs at a strike rate of 176.05, with Luke Ronchi's 744 runs at 171.03 in second place.