KKR star equals Virat Kohli’s record as red-hot form continues in ODIs

Pratyusha Bhawar

The century is Gurbaz's seventh since he made his debut in the format in 2021. It's also his first against South Africa, and second he's scored at Sharjah this year. At age 22, it puts him in an elite company of greats to score as many hundreds before turning 23.

The Afghanistan cricket team continued their sensational run in the ODI format when they sealed their second consecutive win over South Africa in the three matches of the ODI series taking place at Sarjhah Cricket Stadium in Sarjhah. The Afghanistan batters were in top form during their first innings, as they scored a brilliant 311 runs in the first innings of the game. The man who stole the show was star wicketkeeper batter Rahmanullah Gurbaz, who slammed the magnificent century. After hammering the hundred, the KKR star matched a big record held by Indian star cricketer Virat Kohli.

The opening batter went on to hammer 105 runs from 110 balls during the second ODI of the game. This was his 7th century in the ODIs. Notably, the KKR sensational batter has 7 ODIs before turning 23 years old. He has now the most number of the hundreds before turning 23. The young batter equals the tally that was achieved by star batter Virat Kohli. If the star batter manages to score another century, he will be placing himself at the top of the list alongside Master Blaster and Indian great Sachin Tendulkar alongside South African batter Quinton de Kock.

With this stunning 7th ODI century, Rahmanullah Gurbaz has overtaken former wicketkeeper batter Mohammad Shahzad to be the player with the most number of ODI centuries for Afghanistan in history. Shahzad held the record so far with six centuries to his name.

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