Mumbai, Nov 7: Opener Ibrahim Zadran became the first Afghanistan batsman to score a century in the World Cup, hitting the highest individual score for his country in its third appearance in the Men’s ODI World Cup.
Zadran’s century came on Tuesday in the ICC Men’s ODI World Cup 2023 league stage match against Australia here at the Wankhede Stadium.
The 21-year-old completed his century off 131 deliveries, hitting seven boundaries. The previous highest score for Afghanistan in the World Cup the 96 scored by Samiullah Shinwari, who achieved the feat against Scotland at Dunedin, Scotland, in the 2015 edition.
On Tuesday, Zadran shared two half-century partnerships as he anchored the Afghanistan innings, adding 83 runs for the second with Rahmat Shah (30) and 52 for the third wicket with skipper Hashmatullah Shahidi (26).
Zadran, who had scored 87 against Pakistan in Chennai earlier in this tournament, was batting on 110 at the time of writing this report as Afghanistan reached 250/5 in 47 overs.
Highest individual scores for Afghanistan in World Cups:
101* – Ibrahim Zadran vs Australia, Mumbai WS, 2023
96 – Samiullah Shinwari vs Scotland, Dunedin, 2015
87 – Ibrahim Zadran vs Pakistan, Chennai, 2023
86 – Ikram Alikhil vs West Indies, Leeds, 2019
80 – Hashmatullah Shahidi vs India, Delhi, 2023
80 – Rahmanullah Gurbaz vs England, Delhi, 2023.
IANS