I was eagerly waiting to defeat Pakistan: Rahmanullah Gurbaz

1 of 1

Chennai . Afghanistan’s young opening batsman Rahmanullah Gurbaz revealed that his team was desperately waiting to break the ODI losing streak against Pakistan ahead of the record-breaking run-chase.

Afghanistan achieved their first ODI win over Pakistan, chasing the target of 283 runs for the loss of just two wickets in the World Cup 2023 at the MA Chidambaram Stadium on Monday. This was their biggest successful chase ever in ODI history.

This impressive win broke Afghanistan’s seven-match losing streak against Pakistan in ODIs, which had been running in this format since 2012.

Gurbaz termed this spectacular victory over Pakistan as very special.

Rahmanullah Gurbaz said, “It’s a big win. It was really special, it was waited for a long time.”

“For six-seven years we were waiting for a match like this. Whenever we faced Pakistan, they always beat us. This was the first time we beat them,” the 21-year-old player told ICC.

Afghanistan came very close to defeating Pakistan in the 2019 Cricket World Cup, but ultimately lost the thrilling encounter by three wickets with only two balls remaining in the final over.

The competition between the two teams became even more intense during the recent triangular series, where Pakistan managed to win by just one wicket on the last ball. However, Afghanistan had struggled to match Pakistan’s performance in the first five other ODIs.

The 21-year-old Gurbaz played a key role in Afghanistan’s victory by scoring a blistering 65 runs in 53 balls in a 130-run opening partnership with Ibrahim Zadran that set the record-breaking target.

This is Afghanistan’s second upset in this tournament. Earlier, they had defeated defending champions England by 69 runs.

With Monday’s win, Afghanistan is level with Australia and Pakistan on four points in the team standings. Now they will face Sri Lanka on October 30.

–IANS

read this also – Click to read the news of your state/city before the newspaper.