Rahmanullah Gurbaz becomes Afghanistan's third centurion in T20Is: Stats
Afghanistan's dashing opener Rahmanullah Gurbaz smoked a fine century in the T20I series opener against the United Arab Emirates on Friday (December 29). He made a mockery of the UAE bowling attack as he ended up scoring 100 off 52 balls. His stellar knock was laced with seven boundaries and as many sixes. Gurbaz became Afghanistan's third centurion in T20Is.
A stellar show from Gurbaz
Batting first in Sharjah, Afghanistan lost Hazratullah Zazai (13) cheaply. Gurbaz then joined forces with skipper Ibrahim Zadran (59) and the duo added 137 runs. The former was the aggressor in the partnership as he scored runs all over the park. He was dismissed right after completing his ton. Afghanistan posted 203/3 in their 20 overs and eventually won by 72 runs.
Third Afghanistan batter to get the mark
As mentioned, Gurbaz became the third Afghanistan batter to smoke a T20I ton. He has joined Hazratullah Zazai (162* versus Ireland, 2019) and Mohammad Shahzad (118* versus Zimbabwe, 2016). The former also owns the second-highest individual T20I score. Meanwhile, like Gurbaz, Shahzad's ton also came as a designated wicket-keeper.
A look at his stats
Gurbaz completed 1,000 T20I runs earlier this year. The wicketkeeper-batter has now raced to 1,143 T20I runs at 25.97 with the help of five fifties and a ton. He is Afghanistan's fifth-highest run-getter in the format, only behind Shahzad (2,015), Mohammad Nabi (1,829), Najibullah Zadran (1,712), and Asghar Afghan (1,382). Gurbaz has been striking at 138.21.
