World Cup: Rahmat Shah scores half-century in second consecutive match
Afghanistan continue their magnificent run in the 2023 ICC Cricket World Cup after beating Sri Lanka in Pune. The Afghans successfully chased down 242, with Rahmat Shah, Hashmatullah Shahidi, and Azmatullah Omarzai playing impactful knocks. After smashing an unbeaten 77 against Pakistan, Rahmat played a match-winning knock in Pune. Earlier, Fazalhaq Farooqi's four-wicket haul helped Afghanistan restrict SL to 241.
Rahmat slams his second consecutive fifty
Afghanistan lost opener Rahmanullah Gurbaz on the fourth delivery of the run-chase. This exposed Rahmat Shah in the middle. He shared a 73-run stand with Ibrahim Zadran before taking Afghanistan past 130 with skipper Shahidi. Rahmat smashed a fluent 62 off 74 balls, a knock laced with 7 fours. This was his second consecutive fifty in the ongoing tournament.
A look at the match summary
SL had a steady start after Afghanistan elected to field. They recorded their lowest first-powerplay total in WC 2023 (41/1). SL were down to 185/7 after their top five couldn't capitalize. Angelo Mathews and Maheesh Theekshana then took SL to 241. Farooqi took a four-fer. Although Afghanistan lost Gurbaz (0) early, Zadran (39), Rahmat (62), Hashmatullah Shahidi, and Azmatullah Omarzai took them to victory.
Rahmat races past 3,450 runs
With this knock, Shah has raced past 3,450 runs in ODI cricket. He has featured in 103 ODI appearances and now averages 36.64. Besides 25 fifties, he has slammed five centuries in this format. He is Afghanistan's leading run-scorer in ODI cricket. Only Mohammad Nabi has more than 3,000 ODI runs among Afghanistan players. Rahmat has completed 400 ODI runs against Sri Lanka.
