Former Indian legendary cricketer, Sachin Tendulkar's record for the highest score by an 18-year-old at an ICC World Cup was broken by Afghanistan's Ikram Ali Khil when the latter scored 86 off 92 balls against West Indies at the ICC Cricket World Cup in Leeds. The legendary batsman scored 84 runs against New Zealand in the 1992 World Cup.
The 18-year-old wicket-keeper batsman scored the highest individual score for Afghanistan in this World Cup. After the match when asked about how he felt breaking the Little Master's feat he said as quoted by ICC," I'm very proud to have broken the record of a legend like Tendulkar. It makes me very happy."
The youngster who idolises Kumar Sangakkara added that he was disappointed as he did not score a century and hopes that he will score a ton in future.
"I'm disappointed at the same time because I thought I could score a hundred. Hopefully, in the games ahead I will score a hundred for Afghanistan," he said.
The wicket-keeper batsman further added that he wants to become the greatest cricketer of Afghanistan and is very happy with the experience he got at the World Cup.
Afghanistan lost their last game of the World Cup against West Indies by 23 runs. Batting first, the Windies posted a massive total of 311 runs for the loss of six wickets with good batting performances from Shai Hope and Nicholas Pooran. In reply, Afghanistan after getting an early setback losing Gulbadan Naib's wicket recovered but fell short by 23 runs. Ikram's magnificent performed went in vain.
Afghanistan had a disappointing World Cup campaign as they lost all the nine games they have played. But in some matches, they showed glimpses of promise which they could take back as a positive from the tournament. The four teams who are practically confirmed to have qualified for the semi-finals are Australia, India, England and most probably New Zealand if Pakistan do not pull off a miracle in their final fixture against Bangladesh which is supposed to be a dead rubber.
