It may not boom quite like before off Shahid Afridi's bat but the wily Pathan still has that bit of old magic in his hands and can fox a batsman or two.

On Thursday night, Afridi got the better of not one, not two but three. His hat-trick broke the spine of the Maratha Arabians, and effectively killed their run chase of a monumental 122, reports Khaleej Times.

That as well as fine batting efforts from Fakhar Zaman and Liam Dawson gave the Pakhtoons a 25-run win over the Maratha Arabians in the second ever fixture of the T10 League at the Sharjah Cricket Stadium.

Zaman and Dawson scored 45 and 44 respectively as the Pakhtoons recovered from a minor blip to work up the highest score of the League. Afridi snapped up three for 19 and Sohail Khan and Mohammed Irfan took two apiece as the Pakhtoons won comfortably in the end.

Afridi first saw the back of Rilee Rossouw, brilliantly caught by Najibullah Zadran in the deep and then had Dwayne Bravo leg before. It was 46 for 4 and set up ideally for captain Sehwag, but Afridi pounced on his weakness of virtually no feet movement, and had him plumb in front. The Maratha Arabians finished up at 96 for 7.

In the opening match, Kerala Kings defeated Bengal Tigers by eight wickets. Paul Stirling lit up the league with the first half-century as the Kerala Kings  got home with two overs to spare. They racked up 88 for two with Stirling  smacking an unbeaten 66.  In reply, Tigers were restricted to 86 for one.

Bengal Tigers' Marchant de Lange was walloped, with the South African pace bowler conceding 36 from two overs as Stirling ran amok. Chasing a target of 87, the Kerala Kings lost opener Chadwick Walton for nought and then lost captain Eoin Morgan fell leg before to Mujeeb Zadran.