On Tuesday, Afghanistan batter Ibrahim Zadran scripted history for his country as he became his country's first batter to smash a ODI World Cup cricket century in their vital clash against Australia in Mumbai's Wankhede Stadium. Zadran remained unbeaten on 129 (143 balls) that included three maximums and eight fours. By scoring this ton, Zadran also went past the record previously held by Virat Kohli and Sachin Tendulkar to become the fourth youngest batter to hit a ODI World Cup ton. (Match Blog | Streaming | Scorecard | Key Battles)
His century against Australia was his fifth ton overall in ODIs. The batter's maiden World Cup ton came at the age of 21 years and 330 days to go past Virat Kohli (22 years 106 days) and Sachin Tendulkar (22 years and 300 days). Irish batter Paul Stirling tops the list when he smashed his first World Cup century during the 2011 edition against the Netherlands at the age of 20 years and 196 days.
Zadran went on to break more records as he also became the fourth youngest batter to score an ODI century against the mighty Australians. He went past South African wicketkeeper-batter Quinton de Kock in the process. Zadran was influential in posting a formidable 291/5 against the five-time World Cup champions. It is also their highest-ever World Cup total for the Afghans.
Talking about his century, Zadran said, "Feeling very good to become the first Afghan player to score a 100 against in World Cups. I want to score many more hundreds. I worked very hard for this tournament. Against Pakistan, I missed my ton, so I wanted to make it up in this game. I was feeling like I’d get a hundred in the next 3 matches. Wicket is playing well, I passed the message on that we need to target 280-285."
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"If we had wickets in hand, then maybe even 300 or 330 would be possible. We lost some wickets in the end, but Rashid came out and played brilliantly. Our aim was to score at least these many runs, and then field and bowl well. I had a good chat with Sachin Tendulkar yesterday, he shared a lot of his experiences that I can’t express. I’m very thankful to him for sharing his experiences and giving me a lot of confidence."
Earlier, Afghanistan had won the toss and decided to bat first in Mumbai. The match assumes significance as a win for either Australia or Afghanistan will further boost their semi-final hopes. Australia are third in the table on ten points, two ahead of the chasing pack of New Zealand, Afghanistan, and Pakistan. Afghanistan are ranked the worst of the three chasers due to their net run rate, but can leapfrog their counterparts with a win over the Men In Yellow.
Line-Ups
Australia (Playing XI): Travis Head, David Warner, Mitchell Marsh, Marnus Labuschagne, Josh Inglis (wk), Glenn Maxwell, Marcus Stoinis, Pat Cummins (C), Mitchell Starc, Adam Zampa, Josh Hazlewood.
Afghanistan (Playing XI): Rahmanullah Gurbaz, Ibrahim Zadran, Rahmat Shah, Hashmatullah Shahidi (C), Azmatullah Omarzai, Mohammad Nabi, Ikram Alikhil (wk), Rashid Khan, Mujeeb Ur Rahman, Noor Ahmad, Naveen-ul-Haq
