France beat Sweden in a thrilling third-place clash in the Viking Cup in Stockholm, riding on Zaheer Zahiri’s climax blitz, scoring an unbeaten 34 off just 16 balls. Austria won the tournament, beating Norway in the final.
France pacer Zaheer Zahiri won his side a thriller against Sweden in Stockholm on Monday (August 11) in the Viking Cup, but with the bat and ended up shattering a record in T20 cricket history. France was struggling at 105/8, needing 48 runs to win off 31 deliveries, but with just two wickets remaining in the third-place match. Noman Amjad, the in-batter, just held one end and gave the strike to Zahiri, who plundered 34 runs off just 16 balls, hitting four fours and a couple of sixes to take his side to a thrilling win. Zahiri’s unbeaten 34 was the highest individual score by a No.10 batter in a successful run-chase in T20 cricket, let alone just the T20Is. Zahiri broke Liam Trevaskis’ record, who had scored an unbeaten 30 in a game against Leicestershire for Durham in 2021. In international cricket, the record belonged to Charles Waiswa of Uganda, who scored 21 while batting at No. 10 in a successful run-chase against Italy in 2013 in Abu Dhabi.
Overall, the highest score at No.10 in T20 cricket belongs to Manjula Jayawardene, who scored 58 off 36 in club cricket in Sri Lanka in 2019.
The 48-run partnership between Amjad and Zahiri was also the highest for France for the ninth wicket in T20Is as the duo helped their side finish in third place in the Viking Cup.
Earlier, captain Imal Zuwak’s half-century and a couple of quickfire cameos late in the piece from Sami Rahmani and Ihsanullah Wafa helped Sweden cross the 150 mark, but it didn’t look like a comfortable score and it proved to be such.
Austria won the tournament, beating Norway in the final quite comfortably by eight wickets, chasing a modest target of 106 runs. Austria remained unbeaten through the competition, winning all three games in the group stage to qualify for the final.
