On 11th October, the day on which multiple records were broken; From the highest run chase in the ODI World Cup history to Pakistan maintaining its record of winning all the World Cup games against Sri Lanka making it an 8-0, respectively. It displayed a play of sportsmanship, emotions, teamsmanship and made history. Pakistan chased a total of 345 runs, the highest in the men’s ODI World Cup, with the previous record being 328 chased by Ireland against England in the 2011 World Cup.
About the highest Run Chase:
First time in a World Cup match four centuries were witnessed making Rizwan the highest scorer in the 2023 World Cup with 199 runs in two matches. The partnership of 174 runs was also the second-highest 3rd wicket partnership of the Pakistani cricket team by Mohammad Rizwan and Abdullah Shafique who is playing his World Cup debut, made this highest run chase possible.
The match was filled with multiple emotions from both sides with Pakistan being very happy with their batting performance but having to improve the bowling performance and Sri Lanka tackling their emotions of losing two matches in a row despite their spectacular batting performance. Abdullah Shafique showed a very promising performance in his debut World Cup making him a promising youngster and a brilliant replacement for a not-in-form Fakhar Zaman. The selectors made an important and wise choice or even a very bold choice by giving a chance to the rookie player.
Mendis Scored the fastest hundred by a Sri Lankan player in 65 balls beating the record of a hundred in 70 balls by Kumar Sangakkara. He played an amazing knock of 122 runs in 77 balls Also, a record no baller wants to break or even be a part of was broken by Matheesha Patherana of throwing 57 wide balls in ODIs, making his total to 91 wides in 12 matches. This is his World Cup debut, this puts him and the captain in a challenging position of replacing him.
With multiple catches being dropped towards the end of the match made even even more difficult for the Sri lankan team to make a come back mentally as well as performance wise. The batsmen did an amazing job by putting up the highest runs for any team to chase in a World Cup but still could quite bring it home. Records are meant to be broken as it was seen in the 6th match of world cup when Pakistan made the highest run chase in an ODI World Cup.
The Highest Run Chase wasn’t easy:
Despite losing Babar at an early stage, everything thinks only if Barbar scores big Pakistan might have a chance of making the highest run chase. Still, Rizwan with Abdullah showed spectacular teamsmanship scoring a total of 115 runs in 103, Rizwan encouraging the youngster to a beautiful century and himself scoring a total of 130 of 121 balls not out and bringing the victory home by scoring a four to finish the match.
Rizwan in spite of having a cramp and that too multiple times, getting hit on the pad and face still stayed till the very end and stayed strong, displayed a show of great teamsmanship, and with the help of Asad, Saad, and Iftikhar won the game of a the highest run chase in the ODI World Cup by 6 wickets and 10 balls still in hand. Now they’ll be facing their arch-rivals team India on 14th of October 2023 on Sunday, all eyes will be on this match as this is one of the most watched matches. Spectators from all across the world will be watching the squad when they make history with bats again.
