Pakistan's Imam-ul-Haq surpasses Babar Azam to become second fastest to 3,000 ODI runs

Pakistan's left-arm opener Imam-ul-Haq - in his second match in blue at the ongoing World Cup 2023 against Sri Lanka - surpassed captain Babar Azam to reach 3,000 international runs one-day international (ODI)) to become the second fastest batsman to achieve this feat was thus achieved.

 In the  eighth match of the tournament played at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium in Hyderabad, Imam made 3,000 ODI runs in 67 innings.

 The batsman - ahead of Azam, who reached the milestone in 68 innings - was joined by teammate Fakhar Zaman and West Indies' Shai Hope, who also completed 3,000 runs in 67 innings.

 The trio was followed by South Africa's Hashim Amla, who was the fastest batsman in the world to reach the milestone of 3000 ODI runs in 57 innings.

Earlier in the day, Sri Lanka handed Pakistan an impressive  target of 345 runs as their batsmen Kusal Mendis and Sadeera Samarawickrama played an uncompromising game to smash two tons against Pakistan. Sri Lanka suffered a heavy blow after winning the toss and choosing to bat first, with opening batsman Kusal Perera receiving Hassan Ali's delivery.

 However, the Islanders quickly recovered thanks to a 102-run partnership between opener Pathum Nissanka (51 runs off 61 balls) and Kusal Mendis, who scored an impressive 122 runs off 77 balls, His innings contained six sixes.

 Sadeera Samarawickrama anchored Sri Lanka's innings as she scored 108 runs off 89 balls, deftly finding gaps all over the field to score runs for herself.

 Ali then returned to the attack with an impressive spell, taking figures of 4-71 from 10 overs while Haris Rauf returned figures of 2-64 from his 10 overs.