Afridi Makes Big Bash Splash

Shahid Afridi has made big impressions all over the world playing for Pakistan and he continued that trend with South Australia on Tuesday night in the Twenty20 Big Bash when he made an immediate impact by taking 4-19 against Western Australia at the WACA Ground.

But now he wants to get cracking with the bat.

Afridi burst onto the world stage as a 16-year-old in 1996 with a blistering century off a record 37 balls in his first-ever one-day international innings, and ever since has been one of the great enigmas with the bat.
He is capable of being one of the most devastating batsmen in the abbreviated forms of the game, but the bowling of the now 29-year-old has continued to improve and it was his leg-spinners that earned him man-of-the-match honours as the Redbacks beat the Warriors.

Afridi enjoyed the bounce and turn he got from the WACA wicket to claim the wickets of Luke Ronchi, Ashley Noffke, Aaron Heal and Nathan Coulter-Nile, and he's always liked plying his trade on the pitches in Australia.

"That was a good track for bowlers, especially when I was getting good turn and bounce from it. I always enjoy bowling in Australia and in this situation my team needed me as a bowler. I always enjoy cricket, especially in Australia and India," Afridi said.

"You can learn a lot of things from here if you play with cricketers and on good tracks. If you perform here it matters a lot so always I'm very keen to perform. Over the past two and-a-half or three years I've totally focused on my bowling and I always enjoy my bowling here in Australia. Certainly I am looking forward to performing with my bat here as well."

Afridi's South Australian debut didn't get off to the ideal start, though, when he was caught first ball trying to hit spinner Heal out of the ground.

Now he is looking forward to finding form with the bat as he uses the Big Bash as preparation for Pakistan's upcoming one-day series with Australia.

"It was the first game and every new member had their own pressure, and when I hit the ball in the air I thought it was going to be a home run, but I didn't get one," he said.

"Compared to IPL (Indian Premier League) and all the other tournaments, this tournament is right up there. It's good cricket, good pitches and this is good preparation for me before playing in the one-dayers against Australia. Hopefully if I perform well I will go with good morale into that so it's very important for me."

Afridi doesn't want to be playing Test cricket at the moment due to the amount of games being played in all formats, but has taken a keen interest in the battle at the MCG and sees the first hour as crucial if Pakistan has any chance of a highly-improbably run chase.

"I want to give time to my family as well and until the 2011 World Cup I just want to focus on playing one-day and Twenty20 cricket," Afridi said.

"The first one hour is very important for both teams. This is the crucial wicket of (Mohammad) Yousuf and Umar Akmal."

"Umar is obviously playing positive and attacking cricket, which I like in him, and the first hour is crucial and important."