During Pakistan’s second match in the 2023 World Cup, against Sri Lanka, left-handed opener Imam-ul-Haq beat captain Babar Azam to score 3,000 one-day international (ODI) runs, making him the joint second-fastest batter to do so. Imam scored his 3,000th ODI run in the eighth match of the event, which took place at Hyderabad’s Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium.
Imam-ul-Haq passes Babar as the second-fastest to 3,000 runs
The batter has scored 3,000 runs, which is more than Azam, who did it in 68 games. He is now joined by Fakhar Zaman, who is also on the same team, and Shai Hope, who is from the West Indies. Hashim Amla of South Africa is the fastest hitter to reach the milestone, taking only 57 innings. He is ahead of the other three batters.Earlier in the day, Sri Lanka set Pakistan a tough 345-run goal.
Their batters, Kusal Mendis and Sadeera Samarawickrama, played a vicious game and hit two tonnes against Pakistan. After winning the toss and choosing to bat first, Sri Lanka was given a bad start when Hassan Ali bowled and Kusal Perera was out without scoring. The Islanders quickly got back on track, though, thanks to a 102-run partnership between opener Pathum Nissanka (51 runs off 61 balls) and Kusal Mendis (122 runs off 77 balls, including six sixes).
Sadeera Samarawickrama led Sri Lanka’s attack by getting 108 runs off of just 89 balls. He did this by skilfully finding holes all over the field. As the attack went on, Ali came back with an amazing spell, returning figures of 4-71 from 10 overs. Haris Rauf also returned figures of 2-64 from 10 overs.
