Ibrahim Zadran registers highest individual score in ODIs for Afghanistan
Dec 01, 2022
Pallekele [Sri Lanka], December 1 : Afghanistan opener Ibrahim Zadran scored 162 in the third and final ODI against Sri Lanka in Pallekele, breaking the record for the highest score by a player from his country in this format.
Zadran's epic knock came off in just 138 deliveries, decorated with 15 fours and four sixes. The opener completed his hundred in the 39th over, getting to it off 100 balls before smashing 58 runs off the next 38.
He broke the record for the highest individual score by an Afghanistan player in ODIs, beating Mohammad Shahzad's unbeaten 131 against Zimbabwe in 2015.
Zadran already has three centuries in just eight ODI innings and is Afghanistan's joint-third-highest century-maker in this format.
In 8 ODIs, Zadran has amassed 433 runs, batting at 61.85 on average, and turning each of his fifty-plus innings into hundreds. His last three ODI hundreds have come in his last five.
With victory in the first ODI of this series, Afghanistan had already secured their spot in the ICC Men's Cricket World Cup 2023 in India.
Afghanistan had 313 on the board, which was their third-highest total in ODIs, and it appeared like they were going to win a rare away series. But Sri Lanka managed to narrow the gap and tie the series thanks to a spectacular performance from Charith Asalanka and a late cameo from teenager Dunith Wellalage.
Charith Asalanka was the hero for Sri Lanka with an unbeaten 83 as they successfully chased down Afghanistan's massive total of 313/8 with just two balls remaining.
It was Sri Lanka's third-highest run chase in Men's ODI cricket and the best they have achieved since they hauled in India's lofty score of 321/6 in the Champions Trophy at The Oval in 2017.
