In the eighth match of the International Cricket Council (ICC) ODI World Cup 2023, Pakistan completed the biggest feat in the history of the World Cup thanks to the brilliant centuries of Abdullah Shafiq and Mohammad Rizwan against Sri Lanka.
Pakistan completed Sri Lanka’s target of 345 runs for the loss of 4 wickets in the 49th over, Abdullah Shafique scored 112 runs and Mohammad Rizwan stood out.
The target of 345 runs is the highest chase achieved by any team in World Cup history.
Earlier in the 2011 World Cup, Ireland had successfully achieved a target of 329 runs against England.
The match was played at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium in Hyderabad where Lincoln captain Dasan Shanaka invited captain Babar Azam to the field.
Sri Lanka scored 344 runs for the loss of 9 wickets in the allotted 50 overs, Kaushal Mendes scored 122 runs and Samara Wickrama scored 108 runs.
Sri Lanka became the team with the highest total against Pakistan in the World Cup
This is the highest score by any team against Pakistan in a World Cup match, the previous highest score against Pakistan in a World Cup was 336 runs scored by India in 2019.
A change has been made in the national team today, Abdullah Shafiq has been included in the team in place of opener Fakhar Zaman.
Sri Lanka’s Innings World Cup 2023
Sri Lanka, who won the toss and batted first against Pakistan, did not have a good start to the innings. Kusal Perera was caught out by Hasan Ali for a total score of just 5.
Pathum Nissanka and Kusal Mendis shared a partnership of 102 runs for the second wicket, but then Nissanka returned to the pavilion after scoring 51 runs.
After the fall of 2 wickets, Kusal Mendis and Sadeera Samarawickrama charged the batsmen against the Pakistani bowlers put on attractive shorts all around the ground, and batted aggressively. Meanwhile, Mendis also scored Sri Lanka’s fastest World Cup century, reaching 100 off 65 balls.
Mendis and Samarawickrama put on a 111-run partnership but then Mendis was dismissed for 122 off 77 balls while newcomer Charith Asalanka returned to the pavilion on one run.
Apart from that, De Silva scored 25 runs, while Samarawickrama, on the other hand, also scored her first century of ODI career. He played an innings of 108 runs off 89 balls.
Dasun Shanaka played an innings of 12 runs and Dunith Wellalage 10 runs, thus Sri Lanka scored 344 runs for the loss of 9 wickets in the allotted 50 overs.
On behalf of Pakistan, Hasan Ali took 4 wickets, Haris Rauf took 2 wickets, and Shadab, Nawaz, and Shaheen Afridi took one wicket each.
Pakistan’s Innings World Cup 2023
As Pakistan opened the target, the Pakistani opener once again performed poorly and the experienced Imam-ul-Haq continued his failure to bat and was dismissed irresponsibly.
The first wicket fell to Imam-ul-Haq on 16 runs, Imam had scored 12 runs off 12 balls with the help of a four.
Imam-ul-Haq joined the list of fastest batsmen to score 3000 runs in ODI cricket during this short innings and surpassed captain Babar Azam.
Imam-ul-Haq scored a half-century against Bangladesh in the Asia Cup match on September 6, but he showed poor batting performance in the previous two matches and has scored only one half-century in the last 7 innings and the last three. They have been consistently unsuccessful in matches.
Skipper Babar Azam also failed and was caught by wicketkeeper Samaravikrama on an easy ball, his innings consisted of 10 runs off 15 balls with a four.
Captain Babar Azam’s streak of poor form is also getting longer and he has failed for the fifth innings in a row and is far away from his traditional batting.
Abdullah and Rizwan put on a 100-run partnership for the third wicket and during this, Abdullah made the most of his first opportunity in the World Cup to complete his fifty.
Abdullah continued his excellent form and scored his maiden century in ODI cricket and also became the first player to score a century for Pakistan on his World Cup debut.
Before him, the record for the highest score on a World Cup debut was held by Mohsin Khan, who scored 82 runs against Sri Lanka in the 1983 World Cup.
Abdullah Shafiq played a brilliant innings of 113 off 103 balls, but substitute fielder Madi Himantha, standing at point on the 2013 total, took a beautiful catch to end Abdullah’s innings as well as the best partnership.
After Abdullah’s dismissal, Rizwan took over the responsibility of playing fast and started batting aggressively, but due to cramps, he had to seek medical attention several times and faced difficulty running.
The wicketkeeper-batsman batted bravely despite injury to score his maiden World Cup 2023 century and brighten Pakistan’s hopes of victory.
Saud Shakeel, unlike the previous innings, looked a bit dull in this match and his two catches were also dropped, but he could not take advantage of these opportunities and after scoring 31 runs, he became the wicket of Mahesh Thakshana.
Pakistan has so far scored 314 runs for the loss of 4 wickets in 43 overs and 45 overs.
Earlier, talking after the toss, Pakistani captain Babar Azam said that even if we had won the toss, we would have decided to bowl, the pitch was looking good, the first 10 overs are very important, and we would try to get early wickets.
He said that our opening partnership was not good in the previous matches, today the team has been changed, and Abdullah Shafique has been included in place of Fakhar Zaman, it is hoped that the openers will play well in today’s match.
He said that after winning the last match, confidence increased, we have a good record against Sri Lanka, and we will try our best to show our best performance in this match as well.
On the other hand, Sri Lanka suffered a defeat in their first match of the mega event where South Africa scored the highest score in the history of the World Cup by bowling out Sri Lanka for 326 runs in the 45th over to win the match by 102 runs. had taken
Both the teams for today’s match consist of these players.
Pakistan: Babar Azam (captain), Imam-ul-Haq, Abdullah Shafique, Muhammad Rizwan, Saud Shakeel, Iftikhar Ahmed, Shadab Khan, Muhammad Nawaz, Hasan Ali, Shaheen Shah Afridi, Haris Rauf.
Sri Lanka: Pathum Nissanka, Kusal Perera, Kusal Mendis, Sadeera Samarawickrama (wk), Charith Asalanka, Dhananjaya de Silva, Dasun Shanaka (c), Dunith Wellalage, Maheesh Theekshana, Matheesha Pathirana, Dilshan Madushanka
It should be noted that this is the second match of both the teams in World Cup 2023, in this mega event Pakistan defeated the Netherlands by 81 runs in their first match while Sri Lanka was defeated by South Africa by 102 runs.
Pakistan will face India in their third match of the ICC Men`s Cricket World Cup 2023 on 14th October at Narendra Modi Stadium, Ahmedabad