Continuing his brilliant form, young left-handed batter Rachin Ravindra on Saturday became the first New Zealand batter to hit three ODI World Cup hundreds after he scored 108 off 94 during his team’s match against Pakistan at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru.
Ravindra, who is playing his maiden World Cup, had scored hundreds against England and Australia before the game against Pakistan.
The likes of Nathan Astle, Stephen Fleming, Martin Guptill, Scott Styris, Glenn Turner and Kane Williamson have two hundreds apiece in the ODI World Cups and Ravindra has now surpassed them with his third century.
The left-handed batter also made the record of most hundreds by a Kiwi batter in a single edition of the World Cup. Glenn Turner (1975), Martin Guptill (2015) and Kane Williamson (2019) scored two hundreds apiece during different World Cup editions.
During his attacking knock, Rachin also became only the third Kiwi batter after Martin Guptill (547 runs in 2015) and Kane Williamson ( 578 runs in 2019) to score 500 runs in a single World Cup edition.
The 23-year-old eventually got out to Mohammad Wasim Jr in the 36th over and now has 523 runs at the ongoing World Cup. He is just behind South Africa’s Quinton de Kock, who is at the top with 545 runs in this edition.
Earlier, Pakistan captain Babar Azam won the toss and opted to bowl first and both teams decided to change their playing XI for this all-important clash.
Kane Williamson returned for New Zealand and is leading the side. They also recalled Mark Chapman and leg-spinner Ish Sodhi with Will Young, Jimmy Neesham and the injured Matt Henry making way.
On the other hand, Pakistan turned to pace with Hasan Ali replacing spinner Usama Mir.
Playing XIs:
New Zealand: Devon Conway, Rachin Ravindra, Kane Williamson (c), Daryl Mitchell, Tom Latham, Glenn Phillips, Mark Chapman, Mitch Santner, Ish Sodhi, Tim Southee, Trent Boult.
Pakistan: Fakhar Zaman, Abdullah Shafique, Babar Azam (c), Mohammad Rizwan, Saud Shakeel, Iftikhar Ahmed, Salman Ali Agha, Haris Rauf, Hasan Ali, Shaheen Afridi, Mohammad Wasim.
