Ibrahim Zadran etched his name in the history books as he became the first Afghanistan player to smash a century in the ODI World Cup. The young opener hit his maiden World Cup ton against Australia, at the Wankhede Stadium on Tuesday, and credited Sachin Tendulkar later for his inputs.
The Master Blaster had visited the Afghanistan players’ practice session on the eve of the match, and Zadran revealed that Tendulkar gave him a lot of confidence and that the experience of meeting with Sachin helped Ibrahim as well.
“It’s the first time and we all are excited because he’s the legend of the game. For a lot of players, we watched him on TV as a successful player and he was a role model for a lot of us. So, an exciting time for the whole team. See him and maybe some words and we learn from him,” Afghanistan captain Hashmatullah Shahidi has said ahead of the players’ interaction with the Master Blaster.
Follow all the action from the ICC Cricket World Cup 2023 including the World Cup schedule, World Cup 2023 results, and ICC Cricket World Cup points table. Players are vying to top the World Cup 2023 Most Runs and World Cup 2023 Most Wickets charts.
Zadran opened the inning against Australia and ended up scoring an unbeaten knock of 129 runs, powering the Afghanistan side to their highest-ever total in World Cup history of 291/5.
Speaking after becoming the first centurion in the World Cup from his country, Zadran paid tribute to Sachin Tendulkar.
“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,” said Zadran.
The 21-year-old further said that he had a feeling he would get to score a century having missed out on an opportunity to hit a hundred against Pakistan.
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“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,” Ibrahim added further.
Afghanistan were hoping to pip Australia and remain alive in the race for the semifinals, a win would help the Afghans go level on points with the Aussies, while a victory for the five-time winners would guarantee them a place in the knockouts, and they would be the third team to reach the semis after India and South Africa.
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