On Sunday (june 9), Shaheen Hunters and Speenghar Warriors faced off in match 11 of the 2024 Kabul Premier League at the Ayobi Cricket Stadium in Kabul, where Hassan Eisakhil went on a rampage.
Hunters won the toss and chose to bat first, putting up a competitive 209-6 thanks to contributions through the batting line-up. No.6 Ijaz Ahmad Ahmadzai top scored with a quickfire 43 from 20 balls.
Eisakhil comes out all guns firing
However, any hopes that they had of defending the target were quickly dashed thanks to Warriors' opener, 17-year-old Hassan Eisakhil. He set the tone in the very first over by tonking Esmatullah Habibi for three fours and a six, before hitting three consecutive sixes off Said Khan in the second over.
Eisakhil reached his fifty at the end of the third over, off just 15 balls in a knock laced with seven sixes. But he did not stop there. At the end of the Powerplay, he moved on to 99 from 29 deliveries, with opening partner Jalat Khan still on 10* (7).
Eisakhil kept plundering the bowling until the 12th over, hitting 19 sixes in total and scoring 156 off 50 deliveries before being caught off the bowling of Rohullah. At the time of his dismissal, Speenghar needed just 23 more runs to win, from 47 deliveries which the remaining batters duly completed.
No T20 status for KPL saves Chris Gayle's world record
Chris Gayle holds the T20 record for the most sixes hit in an innings. He smashed 18 sixes during his 69-ball knock of 146 for the Rangpur Riders against Dhaka Dynamites in Bangladesh Premier League 2017.
Eisakhil's 19 sixes today (June 9) could have been a world record if the Kabul Premier League (KPL) had T20 status, which it doesn't.
The youngster is the son of Afghan legend and current international Mohammad Nabi. He opened the batting for Afghanistan at the recently-concluded U19 World Cup but endured a difficult campaign with jsut 43 runs in four innings. Sunday's knock was a show of uncharacteristic aggression from Eisakhil, who has a career strike rate of 110 from eight senior T20 matches.
But if this is an indication of things to come, it may not be long until we see father and son playing for the national team together.
