Shahzad wins Nissan Play of the Tournament award for WT20

DUBAI: Afghanistan’s Mohammed Shahzad won hearts around the world in World Twenty20 last month in India, and following three weeks of fan voting he has been crowned as the winner of the Nissan Play of the Tournament for ICC World Twenty20 India 2016.The power packed opener is known for showing no fear when he opens the batting for Afghanistan, as several teams found out during the Group Stages and Super 10 stage. Shahzad’s innings of 44 off 19 balls in reply to South Africa’s daunting total of 210 had the Proteas on the ropes at one point during the chase. Kyle Abbott’s first over alone went for 22 runs. The third ball of the second over of the game, was sent soaring over long-on from Shahzad. And as if to allow those watching to take in the enormity of that six, he held the pose like a champion for a few seconds and never once raised his head.Commentators Brendon Julian and Tom Moody were momentarily left speechless at the shot as Shahzad’s innings lit up the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai.The Nissan Play of the Tournament vote was made up of 16 different brilliant Nissan Plays of the Day, with fans then being given the chance to pick their winner in a bracket knock-out vote.Fans from nearly 200 countries got involved with the post tournament digital activation. There were over 3 million video views of the various plays and a staggering 1.5 million votes.The final vote came down to Mohammad Shahzad’s Six against Soumya Sarkar’s stunning catch against India. This final match-up attracted over 500,000 votes alone as Afghanistan and Bangladesh fans voted in huge numbers to crown their champion. The voting swayed over the course of the week but Mohammad Shahzad just prevailed with 53% of the vote.The response to the Nissan Play of the Tournament continued the trend of increased engagement with cricket fans and viewers across the world during this ICC World T20 2016, won by the West Indies men’s and women’s teams.Across the official event website and App, ICC’s YouTube channel, ICC’s Facebook page, ICC’s Twitter and Instagram account and the regional and global live stories posted on Snapchat, there were more than 320 million video views – the highest mark ever for an ICC event.During the event, 46 million people across the world engaged on Facebook, the most ever for any Twenty20 event in history, while the 85 press conferences streamed live on the ICC’s Facebook page had more than 10 million views. On Twitter, there were 5.75 billion impressions of Tweets related to the ICC World Twenty20, an all-time record for any cricket event.