Opening batter, Pathum Nissanka etched his name in cricketing history to become the first Sri Lankan batter to score a double-hundred. He finished his innings unbeaten scoring 210 runs in 139 deliveries in the first ODI against Afghanistan at Pallekele.
The opening batter joins the likes of Rohit Sharma, Martin Guptill, Virender Sehwag and many others to become the 10th man to score a double-hundred in the 50-over format. His score of 210 also becomes the 5th highest individual score in ODIs sharing the record with India’s Ishan Kishan.
After his knock, Nissanka also set the new record for the highest runs scored in an innings by a Sri Lankan batter surpassing the legendary Sanath Jayasuriya’s 189 against India in the year 2000.
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The batter from Galle, started off his innings cautiously scoring just six runs in his first 12 balls. He then picked up the pace with conseuctive boundaries coming against Azmatullah Omarzai to find his timing. Soon after he went on to bring up his half-century in just 31 balls.
He was also cautious against the spinners, notably Noor Ahmad, playing shots with minimal risk to pace his innings well. Opening the innings with Avishka Fernando, the pair managed to put up a solid partnership worth 182 runs to set the platform for a big score for Sri Lanka.
Nissanka went on to bring up his century in just 88 deliveries following the dismissal of Fernando. This was followed by another big partnership worth 120 runs as the pair of Pathum Nissanka and Sadeera Samarawickrama continued piling on the pressure against the Afghanistan bowlers.
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His habit of pacing his innings served him well as the batter went on to bring up his 150 in 117 deliveries with the death overs coming up. He was able to tackle the pacers in the final few overs particularly attacking Fazalhaq Farooqi for 19 runs in the 47th over to set the highest individual score by a Sri Lankan batter in ODIs.
Following the dismissal of Samarawickrama, Nissanka was able to finish off strong as he attacked both Gulbadin and Fareed to bring up his double-century in style and set a massive target of 382 runs for Afghanistan to chase down.
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