Pakistan achieved a historic milestone in cricket history on Saturday when they played their 1,000th One-Day International (ODI) match in the opening game of the three-match ODI series against Australia at the Rawalpindi Cricket Stadium.
The Green Shirts had a formidable record of 999 ODIs since they played their first match against New Zealand in 1973 at Christchurch.
Pakistan have won 527 matches and lost 442 in over 50 years of playing with nine ties and 21 no-result matches.
The Pakistan ODI path has been promising with memorable moments such as winning the ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup in 1992 with the leadership of Imran Khan.
Another historic occasion was in 2017 when Pakistan won the ICC Men’s Champions Trophy from arch-rivals India by beating them by 180 runs in the final match at The Oval.
Pakistan also became the third team in the world’s cricket history to play 1000 ODI matches, following Australia and India, the only team to play more than 1000 ODIs.
India is currently on top of the list with 1075 appearances in ODIs while Australia have played in 1019 ODI games.
To mark the occasion Australia skipper Josh Inglis presented Pakistan skipper Shaheen Shah Afridi with a special souvenir at the toss.
The present was a cricket bat with a miniature cricket bat on top, along with three miniature cricket stumps, which represented Pakistan’s 1,000th ODI debut.
After securing the toss, opting to bat first, Shaheen had said it was a proud moment for the team and country.
It was a great honour for him to represent Pakistan in such an historic match and he wished the team to celebrate the occasion with a win over Australia, he said.
Also read: Pakistan start ODI series with dominant five-wicket victory over Australia
