Lahore Qalandars’ Haris Rauf completes 50 wickets to become lead T20 wicket taker of 2020

By
Faizan Lakhani
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Haris Rauf apologizes to Shahid Afridi after taking his wicket during Eliminator 2 of the Pakistan Super League (PSL) 2020 in Karachi, on November 15, 2020. — Twitter

KARACHI: Lahore Qalandars’ pace sensation Haris Rauf added another feather to his cap on Sunday when he completed a half-century of T20 wickets in the ongoing calendar year which made him the leading T20 wicket-taker of 2020.

Rauf bowled out veteran Shahid Afridi to claim his third wicket in PSL Eliminator 2 against Multan Sultans to complete his 50 wickets in the calendar year.

The 27-year-old is now the leading wicket-ticker in T20 cricket this year (50 wickets from 31 games).

Rauf’s teammate Shaheen Shah Afridi has 48 from 33 T20 games this year while Afghanistan’s Rashid Khan also has 48 wickets in 39 T20s.

Read more: Lahore Qalandars beat Multan Sultans by 25 runs to reach PSL 2020 final

Rauf is only the fourth Pakistani to take 50 or more wickets in a calendar year. Last year, Wahab Riaz had got 60 T20 wickets while in 2012 Sohail Tanvir had taken 55 and Yasir Arafat 52 wickets.

Although former Pakistan all-rounder Azhar Mahmood had also taken 52 wickets in the year 2012 but he played that year as an English player after obtaining British citizenship.

It is worth mentioning that Rauf had aimed to reach 50-calendar-year-wickets landmark in remainders of PSL during an interview with Geo News last week.