Pakistan captain Babar Azam slammed a brilliant T20I century on Thursday in the 2nd T20I match against England in Karachi, which was also his 2nd century in international cricket in the shortest format. Babar looked nervous at the start but soon he unleashed the beast inside him and smashed the bowlers of England to all the corners of the ground.
Babar struck 110 from 66 balls, with opening partner Rizwan finishing on 88 from 51 deliveries as Pakistan chased down a target of 200 runs with three balls to spare in Karachi. His stunning knock was laced with 11 fours and 5 maximums. He formed an unbeaten opening partnership with Mohammad Rizwan that pull off a remarkable run-chase to beat England by 10 wickets and level their T20I series at 1-1.
The partnership between Babar Azam and Mohammad Rizwan was also their highest in any chasing effort in men’s T20 internationals, extending their previous record of 197 against South Africa in 2021. He was well supported by Mohammad Rizwan, who 88 runs off 51 balls, smashing 5 fours and 4 sixes.
On the way to his stunning century, he achieved another milestone as he became the second-fastest batter in world cricket after West Indies legend Chris Gayle to reach 8,000 T20 runs.
Yes, you read that right. Babar Azam took only 218 innings to complete 8,000 runs in the format overall. While it is a great achievement by him, however, he has a lot of catching up to do in terms of coming at par with Indian great Virat Kohli, who currently has 10,904 runs in 333 T20 innings. Even Indian captain Rohit Sharma is way ahead of Babar Azam, with 10481 runs in 383 innings. Pakistani batter Shoaib Malik has 11902 from 447 innings, while the Universe Boss Chris Gayle still remains the batter with the most T20 runs ever, with 14562 runs in 455 innings.
Clinical! 💪
Pakistan win by 1️⃣0️⃣ wickets 🙌#PAKvENG | #UKSePK pic.twitter.com/R4sYWL2BWt
— Pakistan Cricket (@TheRealPCB) September 22, 2022
