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Afghanistan opening batter Ibrahim Zadran made history on Monday, becoming his country's first-ever centurion in the history of the ICC Cricket World Cup.
Zadran reached this record during the match against five-time champions Australia at Mumbai's Wankhede Stadium on Tuesday. Zadran carried his bat till the end, scoring 129 in 143 balls, with eight fours and three sixes. He scored his runs at a strike rate of over 90. This is Afghanistan's first-ever WC ton. Previously, Samiullah Shinwari's 96 against Scotland in the 2015 Cricket World Cup was Afghanistan's highest individual score in tournament history. Zadran is the fourth youngest to score a hundred in the ODI World Cup at 21 years, 330 days in age. The youngest player to score a World Cup ton is Ireland's Paul Stirling, who was just 20 years, 196 days old when he smashed a ton against the Netherlands in 2011. The young opener has also overtaken Rahmat Shah's record of 722 runs in 2018 to become the Afghan batter with the highest number of ODI runs in a calendar year. This year, Zadran has 839 runs in 19 innings at an average of 49.35, with two centuries and five fifties. His best score is 129*. Zadran also has seven fifty-plus scores this year, which is the joint-highest by an Afghanistan batter in a year, with Rahmat Shah at the top with seven in 2018. This is Zadran's fifth ODI tons and now he has the joint second-highest ODI tons for Afghanistan, with the highest by Mohammed Shehzad, who has six ODI centuries. In this World Cup, Zadran has scored 361 runs at an average of 51.57, with one century and a fifty. His runs have come at a strike rate of over 77. He is the 10th-highest run-scorer in the tournament and his country's highest run-getter so far. Coming to the match, Afghanistan opted to bat first. Zadran held one end steady while Rahmat Shah (30), skipper Hashmatullah Shahidi (26), Azmatullah Omarzai (22) made valuable contributions to take Afghanistan near the 230-run mark. Then in the final few overs, Zadran accelerated while Rashid Khan (35* in 18 balls, with two fours and three sixes) played a cameo to take Afghanistan to 291/5 in 50 overs. Josh Hazlewood (2/39) was the pick of the bowlers for Australia. Adam Zampa, Mitchell Starc and Glenn Maxwell took a wicket each. If Australia chase 292, this will give them a semifinal spot with their sixth win. On the other hand, an Afghanistan win will be their fifth and take their points tally to 10 and keep them in the fight for a semifinal spot. (ANI)
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