On Tuesday, October 10 at Hyderabad’s Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium, Match 8 of the ICC Cricket World Cup 2023 pitted Pakistan against Sri Lanka. Sri Lanka gave the Babar Azam-led team a lofty 345-point objective to reach in order to win the match. After 7.2 overs, Pakistan was in trouble at 37/2 when Mohammad Rizwan joined Abdullah Shafique in the middle, where he went on to score a brilliant century.
The 23-year-old bowed down toward the locker room in the same manner as the star Indian batter Shubamn Gill as he enthusiastically celebrated his first ODI hundred.
Watch his Celebration here:
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Abdullah Shafique continued to bat well, scoring 113 runs off just 103 balls while slamming 10 fours and three sixes. In order to assist his team bounce back from the early blows, he and Mohammad Rizwan shared a huge 176-run partnership off 155 balls for the third wicket.
Notably, Abdullah Shafique was playing in only his fifth ODI innings when he took the position of Fakhar Zaman in the starting XI against Sri Lanka.
Shafique has played in five ODIs so far and has a total of 193 runs from five innings with a 38.60 average and 150 runs to his credit. The 23-year-old also has an impressive resume for someone with such a little Test career—just 14 matches—having amassed 1220 runs from those 14 matches at an average of 50.83, including four hundreds and four fifty-plus scores.
Mohammad Rizwan’s undefeated 131 helped Pakistan win the match.
After Abdullah Shafique was dismissed, Mohammad Rizwan continued to play despite suffering from excruciating cramps and helped Pakistan reach the highest goal in World Cup history. As Pakistan chased down 345 in 48.2 overs and won the match by six wickets, Rizwan produced a brilliant innings of 131* (121) slamming eight fours and three sixes. Player of the Match was rightfully given to Rizwan for his brilliant hundred.
By scoring the fastest century by a Sri Lankan hitter in the ODI World Cup in just 65 balls earlier in the day, Kusal Mendis also wrote history. He went on to make 122 off 77 balls, and Sadeera Samarawickrama (108 off 99) provided solid assistance as the pair helped Sri Lanka reach 344/9 in their allotted 50 overs.
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