After opener Pathum Nissanka smashed the first double ton by a Sri Lankan player in ODIs, against Afghanistan on Friday, the all-rounder duo of Mohammad Nabi and Azmatullah Omarzai came up with special performances, during the chase of 382. During the first ODI of the SL vs AFG series, the duo added 242 runs for the sixth wicket together, after being reduced to 55/5 at one stage.
Nabi (136) slammed 15 fours and three sixes in his innings, while Omarzai scored an unbeaten 149 from 115 balls, with the help of 13 fours and six sixes. Despite this special effort though, Afghanistan fell short 42 runs in the chase, but not before smashing records galore.
Nabi & Omarzai Break Records in SL vs AFG
Their 242-run stand is the second-highest ever for the sixth wicket in ODIs, just short of New Zealand’s Grant Elliot and Luke Ronchi’s stand of 267 vs Sri Lanka, in Dunedin, in 2015. This was also only the fourth time in ODIs, that a pair stitched a partnership of over 200 for the sixth wicket.
If that wasn’t enough, Nabi & Omarzai stitched the second-highest partnership for Afghanistan in ODIs, for any wicket. The record stands in the name of Rahmanullah Gurbaz and Ibrahim Zadran, who added 256 runs for the opening wicket, against Bangladesh in 2023.