With his third century in his eighth match, surpassing Mohammad Shahzad’s previous best score of 131 not out.
In their final one-day international on Wednesday, Afghanistan’s opener Ibrahim Zadran scored 162 to set a record for his team’s highest individual score. He helped the tourists reach 313-8 against Sri Lanka.
After the second match was postponed due to rain, the tourists decided to bat first in Pallekele and lost three early wickets, giving them a 1-0 series lead.
Ibrahim, who struck a match-winning 106 in the opening game, and left-handed Najibullah Zadran, who struck 77, then added 154 runs to rebuild Sri Lanka’s offense and put it on the back foot.
This partnership broke Nawroz Mangal and Samiullah Shinwari’s 2013 record of 144 against Scotland for Afghanistan’s best fourth-wicket partnership.
Ibrahim, 20 years old, scored his third century in his eighth ODI, surpassing Mohammad Shahzad of Afghanistan, who had scored 131 runs without scoring.
After starting slowly with 57-3, the duo switched gears in the 25th over when Ibrahim scored fifty.
Najibullah scored fifty with a four off Dhananjaya de Silva as they made boundaries in almost every over that followed.
The southpaw hit eight fours and one six before being caught by Dasun Shanaka at midwicket off wrist spinner Wanindu Hasaranga.
Ibrahim surpassed his previous best of an unbeaten 121 before departing on the final ball of the innings, despite Afghanistan losing more wickets.
In his 138-ball performance, he made 15 fours and 4 sixes.
Sri Lanka must score 314 runs to even the series and earn crucial Super League points in order to have a chance of directly participating in the ODI World Cup in India next year.