Oval Invincibles started the 2025 season with a 6 wicket win over London Spirit at Lord’s. Rashid Khan, the Afghan leg-spinner, was the star of the show and won the Player of the Match award.
Khan’s bowling was superb. He took 3 wickets for 11 runs in 20 balls and bowled 15 dot balls, the most in the game. His fielding was just as good, he took 3 catches.
This was a big day for the leg-spinner. He became the first bowler to take 650 wickets in T20s. He achieved this feat on his debut for Oval Invincibles in The Hundred 2025.
Rashid got among the runs by taking 3 wickets, getting rid of Wayne Madsen, Ryan Higgins and Liam Dawson. His figures read 3 for 11 in 20 balls. He is now the highest wicket-taker in T20s. He went past West Indies legend Dwayne Bravo earlier this year in SA20.
Here are the top wicket-takers in T20s:
- 651 – Rashid Khan (478 innings)
- 631 – Dwayne Bravo (546 innings)
- 589 – Sunil Narine (544 innings)
- 547 – Imran Tahir (417 innings)
- 498 – Shakib Al Hasan (443 innings)
London Spirit won the toss and chose to bat first, a decision they probably regretted. They were all out for 80 in 94 balls, not even completing their 100 ball innings. 45 of those balls were dot balls, almost half of their innings was spent without scoring. Even with David Warner and Kane Williamson in their lineup, they couldn’t make much of an impact, both were out for 9 runs each.
Ashton Turner was the top scorer for London Spirit, scoring 21 off 14 balls. Besides Rashid, Sam Curran also had a good day, taking 3 wickets for 18 runs in 19 balls and 10 dot balls. Behrendorff took 1 wicket, Jordan Clark 2. Tom Curran, Nathan Sowter and Will Jacks bowled well, making it tough for London Spirit batsmen to score.
After playing for Gujarat Titans in IPL 2025, Rashid missed the Major League Cricket (MLC) in the USA. He talked about his short break, “I needed to get myself physically and mentally ready for the next competition. The IPL is a long tournament and it helped me think about how to prepare moving forward. The pitch was good, it offered some spin and I tried to bowl in the right areas. I mixed up my deliveries and it worked out well.”
