Afghanistan's Ibrahim Zadran BREAKS This Shubman Gill ODI Record

Afghanistan displayed all-round cricket in the first ODI vs hosts Sri Lanka to take a 1-0 lead in the three-match series on Friday at Hambantota. The chief architect of the win for Afghanistan was Ibrahim Zadran. The 21-year-old smashed a brilliant 98 off same number of balls to guide the visitors to a dominant win. Zadran, who plays with a No 18 written on his back just like Virat Kohli, stroked 11 fours and 2 sixes on his way to 98. He may have missed out on his fourth ODI ton, but he did end up breaking a Shubman Gill record. 

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After Afghanistan won the toss, they invited Sri Lankans to bat first. Helped by a valiant 91 by Charith Asalanka and 51 by Dhananjaya de Silva, Lanka posted 268 for 10 in fifty overs. It was never going to be enough on a track which was good for batting even in the second innings. Fazalhaq Farooqi and Fareed Ahmad picked up two wickets each while Azmatullah, Mujeeb Ur Rahman, Noor Ahmad and Mohammad Nabi ended up with a wicket each. 

Ibrahim Zadran _
What a fine player he is, about to get his 4th ODI Hundred in just 9 matches but dismissed on 98 _#SLvAFG2023 pic.twitter.com/gdbjcjbLDW — Shahzaib Ali __ (@DSBcricket) June 2, 2023

All eyes were on IPL champion Matheesha Pathirana, who had arrived fresh from India after winning the trophy with Chennai Super Kings (CSK). However, the Sri Lanka pacer struggled and leaked 66 from 8.5 overs with just one wicket. He also gave away 16 runs as wides. 

Zadran and Rahmanullah Gurbaz opened for Afghanistan with the bat. Gurbaz was dismissed for just 14 but Zadran continued to bat well at the other end. Rahmat Shah and Zadran then stitched a 146-run stand for the second wicket. In the end, Nabi and Najibullah Zadran won the game for Afghanistan with more than four overs and four wickets remaining. 

In the process of scoring 98, Zadran went past Shubman Gill's record. He became the second-fastest batter to score 500 ODI runs. Zadran achieved the landmark in 9 innings.  while Gill did it in 10 innings. Not to forget, Zadran's record is also joint-fastest by an Asian batter as he has equalled Pakistan's Imam-ul-Haq's number. The record of scoring the fastest 500 ODI runs belongs to Janneman Malan of South Africa.