An unknown batsman from Nepal, a country that is primarily known worldwide for having more 8,000-meter-plus mountain peaks than cricket stadiums, shattered one of the longest-standing world records in international cricket on Saturday. At the age of 16 years and 146 days, Rohit Paudel became the youngest player in international cricket to score a half-century when he scored 55 runs off 58 balls in an one-day international match against the United Arab Emirates (UAE) on Saturday in Dubai.

In fact, while scoring that match-winning innings in Nepal's 145 run victory over the UAE, Paudel smashed another world record too as he went on to be the youngest batsman to score a century in international cricket.

The previous record was held by India's cricketing icon Sachin Tendulkar who scored 59 runs in a Test match against Pakistan in 1989 at the age of 16 years and 213 days.

Paudel's record-breaking innings also saw him eclipsing former Pakistan captain Shahid Afridi's previous half-century record in a 50-over match. Aged 16 years and 217 days, Afridi slammed a 37-ball century against Sri Lanka in Nairobi in 1996.

Rohit Paudel, who was born in Nepal's Nawalparasi on September 2, 2002, had scored just 15 runs overall in his career in the two ODIs he played before his record-shattering game on Saturday. His previous best score in an international match was nine and did not even have a half-century in any List A match.

He had made his debut in August 2018 against Netherlands at Amstelveen and he was the unbeaten batsman in his country's historic win when Nepal attained ODI status in May 2018 after beating Papua New Guinea by six wickets in the ICC Cricket World Cup Qualifier play-off in Harare.