The Afghanistan captain was made to wait for his milestone after taking his 698th and 699th wickets against South Africa last week and then delivering 3.2 overs in this match without success. He was hit for 17 runs in the 20 balls he bowled before Arfan moved across his stumps to try and reverse-sweep Rashid, but missed completely and hit his own stumps instead. Rashid barely celebrated with Afghanistan needing a win and other results to go their way to qualify for the Super Eights.
Rashid had, in any case, been way ahead of the wicket-takers’ pack for a while. The retired Dwayne Bravo is in second place on the table with 631 wickets. Among active cricketers, Sunil Narine is behind Rashid – and in third place behind Bravo – with 613 wickets.
The most prolific wicket-taker in the history of the format, Rashid has actually been slightly below his best since back surgery in 2023, but against West Indies in Afghanistan’s recent series win, he conceded just 51 runs in 12 overs across three matches with five wickets to his name in what were otherwise high-scoring affairs. Then, in the first game of the World Cup for Afghanistan, he returned 1 for 36, Afghanistan’s second-most economical bowler behind Mujeeb Ur Rahman as New Zealand crossed Afghanistan’s 182 with more than two overs to spare.
