Take a bow, Rahmanullah Gurbaz. 48 deliveries is all it took the Afghani keeper-batter to bring up his 9th ODI ton in the 1st IND vs AFG match in Dharamsala, on Saturday. In an innings that included 8 fours and as many sixes, Gurbaz managed to reach the fastest century ever in an ODI by an Afghanistan batter, surpassing Karim Sadiq’s effort in 72 balls vs Netherlands.
Gurbaz slams historic ton for Afghanistan
That is not it; Gurbaz resurrected his team’s innings when they were struggling at 26/3 in 4.3 overs. He batted smartly, rather counter-attacked smartly to put pressure on the Indian bowlers, especially spinners Harsh Dubey and Washington Sundar. The duo went on to add 116 in just 11 overs.
Again, this is also the second-fastest ton vs India in an ODI. The fastest is by Pakistan’s Shahid Afridi in 2005 in Kanpur, where he tore apart the bowling attack. Tracing the course of his innings, Gurbaz really put the foot on the pedal in the 12th over, where he took Washi alone for 19 runs, blasting two sixes and a four.
Bails team out of trouble
Earlier in his innings, the young but experienced opener had gotten to the second fastest fifty in an ODI for Afghanistan, in 25 balls. The fastest is still reserved for Mohammad Nabi, who got to the milestone in 24, vs Sri Lanka in 2023; all these records just show the magnitude of the innings played by the dashing batter.
And by no means it was an easy wicket to bat on. Dharamsala witnessed rain for three hours before the start of the fixture, that made the pitch damp, and the bounce was uneven. That ensured some poor overs for the batters, and that trend continued. But Gurbaz waded through the initial storm, to produce a top-notch knock.
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