Whatever you choose to call a half-century or a fifty, scoring most fifties in a T20 league like the PSL with a decent strike rate is an extremely challenging task. This is because no other league can match the quality of the PSL’s bowling attack. Hasan Ali, Naseem Shah, and Shaheen Afridi are instances of PSL-born bowlers that can make it extremely difficult for any batter to achieve the landmark of 50 runs. To score more runs in the PSL, similar to the case with Babar Azam, a batsman would need to be of the finest quality.
Babar Azam has scored the most half centuries 23 in the PSL. His capacity to achieve these half centuries is far surpassed by his genius. No other batter has come close to Babar’s record. Therefore it seems that he will continue to maintain it for a while.
The PSL statistics make it clear that these half-centuries and centuries came from opening batters, irrespective of who scored the century or half-century. The reason for this is simple: In the league’s T20 format, the opening hitter (top order) gets more chances to bat and has more time to establish that lower-order batsman.
Now, we will look at the top 10 batters with the most half-centuries in Pakistan Super League.
| Sr. # | Player | Inns | 50s | Avg. | HS | NO |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 01 | Babar Azam | 77 | 28 | 42 | 115 | 09 |
| 02 | Fakhar Zaman | 72 | 20 | 31 | 115 | 01 |
| 03 | Kamran Akmal | 74 | 15 | 27 | 107* | 02 |
| 04 | Mohammad Rizwan | 68 | 16 | 40 | 83* | 12 |
| 05 | Shoaib Malik | 81 | 14 | 34 | 73 | 13 |
| 06 | Luke Ronchi | 31 | 10 | 36 | 94* | 03 |
| 07 | Rilee Rossouw | 71 | 11 | 33 | 100 | 166 |
| 08 | Ahmed Shehzad | 43 | 09 | 26 | 99 | 02 |
| 09 | Shane Watson | 46 | 09 | 32 | 91* | 04 |
| 10 | Muhammad Hafeez | 68 | 09 | 27 | 98 | 10 |
| 11 | Colin Munro | 35 | 09 | 34 | 90 | 04 |
| 12 | Umar Akmal | 35 | 08 | 31 | 93 | 05 |
| 13 | Shan Masood | 40 | 08 | 32 | 88 | 0 |
1. Babar Azam | 28 Fifties
Babar has most half centuries to his name in PSL history. He has scored 23 fifties in 66 innings. His batting ability in PSL is so good that he scored fifty against all teams.
Although he played for Islamabad United for one season in 2016, he was unable to score a fifty, and Karachi Kings was where he scored more fifties. Babar’s batting average against each PSL team is more than 20 which is a fantastic record in PSL.
Now, we will have a detailed analysis of Babar Azam’s half centuries. Babar’ half centuries against each team are as follows:
We can see that Babar ‘s most fifties came against Peshawar Zalmi.
Now, we will have yearly seasonal half centuries analysis of Babar Azam.
| Player | 2016 | 2017 | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Babar Azam | 0 | 1 | 5 | 3 | 5 | 7 | 2 | 5 |
We can see that Babar Azam has scored the most half-centuries in season 2021 of PSL for Karachi Kings.
2. Fakhar Zaman | 20 Fifties
Fakahar Zaman has scored the most fifties in won matches of PSL, which is an incredible record in Pakistan Super League. The year 2020 of PSL was outstanding for Fakhar Zaman as he scored 07 half-centuries and one century in that season. How many half-centuries has he scored in each season?
| Player | 2016 | 2017 | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fakhar Zaman | 0 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 7 | 3 |
No matter who the opposition was, Fakhar Zaman scored fifty. How many fifties has he scored versus each team? Let’s find out.
3. Kamran Akmal | 15 Fifties
Kamran Akmal scored the majority of his half centuries for Peshawar Zalmi. In PSL career, Kamran Akmal scored most of his centuries in U.A.E. He had an outstanding performance with the bat scoring four fifties in the season. Now, let’s analyze his results from the previous year.
| Player | 2016 | 2017 | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Kamran Akmal | 0 | 2 | 4 | 3 | 1 | 2 | 0 |
All of his half centuries came for Peshawar Zalmi. Now we will look at his maximum number of centuries against an opposition.
Islamabad United and Karachi Kings are the teams against which Kamran Akmal scored most fifties in the PSL.
4. Muhammad Rizwan | 16 Fifties
In the 2022 PSL, Muhammad Rizwan portrayed him as an iconic player. He scored 07 fifties in that season which is one of the excellent performances in PSL. His complete season analysis is as follows
| Player | 2016 | 2017 | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Muhammad Rizwan | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 7 | 4 | 0 | 4 |
Muhammad Rizwan scored fifty in PSL against all teams. His most fifties came against United and Qalandars i.e. 03 fifties against each of them, while fifties against other teams are as follows:
PSL 07 will be remembered for Muhammad Rizwan’s brilliant performance in cricket.
5. Shoaib Malik | 14 Fifties
Shoaib Malik has various PSL records to his name, and one of them is most fifties in PSL. He has scored most fifties for Peshawar Zalmi. Malik’s contributions to Zalmi have helped them in several games. His yearly 50s in PSL are as follows:
| Player | 2016 | 2017 | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Shoaib Malik | 0 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 2 | 3 |
He scored fifty against almost every team of PSL. He scored the most number of the 50s against Quetta Gladiators.
From the above figures, we can see that Shoaib Malik has proved himself as one of the most amazing batters of PSL.
6. Rilee Rossouw | 11 Fifties
Rilee Rossouw played for the Sultans and Gladiators, entertaining their supporters with the bat. He also has his name on the list of players with the most centuries in PSL.
He performed excellently in PSL 07 with the bat, scoring 03 fifties this season. His yearly performance in other PSL seasons is as follows:
Every rival Team in the PSL has faced difficulty from him. He scored fifty against all the teams of PSL.
| Player | 2016 | 2017 | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rilee Rossouw | 0 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 3 | 3 |
Hence, we can see from the above data how Rillley Rossouw has built himself as a brand player in PSL.
7. Luke Ronchi | 10 Fifties
Although Luke Ronchi is seen as an underestimated player, the PSL has seen some of his best play. In addition to his records for catches, his name is listed among the PSL players with the most half-centuries and fastest 50’s. How many centuries has he made against each PSL team?
| Player | 2016 | 2017 | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Luke Ronchi | 0 | 0 | 5 | 3 | 2 | 0 | 0 |
PSL 2018 was an excellent season for Luke Ronchi, as he scored 05 fifties in that season.
The above yearly records show that Ronchi was a consistent performer for Islamabad United.
8. Ahmed Shehzad | 9 Fifties
Despite being engaged in several disputes, Ahmed Shahzad’s PSL career shows that he is among the league’s top performers. The majority of the fifties of Ahmed Shehzad in PSL came for Quetta Gladiators. Zalmi, United and Kings are the teams against which he scored his PSL half-centuries.
| Player | 2016 | 2017 | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ahmed Shehzad | 2 | 3 | 0 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
PSL 2019 was considered a well-played league for Ahmed Shehzad, as he scored most fifties this season. His yearly performance is as follows;
9. Shane Watson | 9 Fifties
One of Shane Watson’s career’s major milestones was playing in the Pakistan Super League. He made different PSL records with his name on the list of most centuries, most sixes and now on most fifties. Shane Watson scored 08 fifties for Gladiators and 01 fifty for Islamabad United.
He scored fifties against almost all teams except Gladiators.
Now, we will have yearly seasonal analysis of Watson’s fifties records in PSL.
| Player | 2016 | 2017 | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Shane Watson | 1 | 0 | 2 | 4 | 2 | 0 | 0 |
We can see that PSL 2019 was an outstanding season for Watson as he was able to score 04 fifties in that season.
10. Umar Akmal | 8 Fifties
Umar Akmal brought a lot of controversy to Pakistani cricket, but he still ranks among the best performers in terms of the number of fifty-scores in the PSL. In his PSL career, he scored most fifties for Qalandars, which are 05 in number. He scored the 50s against all the opposition of PSL.
| Player | 2016 | 2017 | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Umar Akmal | 4 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
So it’s clear that Umar Akmal had a great season in 2016, a year when the PSL was still a young league and few records were set.
