Sharjah: The record fell in the ninth over, to a ball that did very little. Tadiwanashe Marumani, on 2, was trapped in front. Rashid Khan had 200 wickets in men's T20 internationals, and no one else in the world did.
He got there in his 120th T20I, at an average of 13.96 and an economy rate of 6.13, with best figures of 5-3 and two five-wicket hauls. England's Adil Rashid is second on the list with 171 from 153 matches. The gap is 29 wickets.
The distribution says as much as the total. Of the 200, 142 came in the middle overs, between the seventh and the sixteenth, and 56 in the last four. He has taken only two wickets in the powerplay, having bowled 102 balls in that phase. He has taken four or more wickets in an innings 11 times, two more than any other bowler. His 150 wickets in Asia are the most by anyone on the continent, 79 of them in the UAE.
The match itself was stranger than the milestone. Afghanistan were put in and collapsed to 5 for 4 inside the powerplay, and 38 for 5 soon after. Azmatullah Omarzai then made 116 off 50 balls, with five fours and 12 sixes, sharing a 142-run sixth-wicket stand off 59 deliveries with Ijaz Ahmadzai, who made 52 off 27. Rashid finished it himself, hitting four sixes in the last over to end unbeaten on 25 off six balls. Afghanistan made 221 for 7, scoring 176 in the last ten overs — the most by a Full Member in a T20I innings.
Zimbabwe's captain Sikandar Raza responded with an unbeaten 100, becoming the oldest man to score a T20I century, and shared an unbroken 120-run stand with Tafadzwa Tsiga, who made 31 not out. Zimbabwe finished on 202 for 5, 19 runs short.
The win gave Afghanistan an unassailable 2-0 lead in the three-match series, and an eighth successive T20I series win over Zimbabwe. Rashid's first international match, in October 2015, was against the same opponent.
He is 28.