Captain Babar Azam scored a brilliant century, while Mohammad Rizwan created a T20I history at Pakistan’s National Stadium Karachi with a brilliant half-century.
Needing a target of 200 runs, both set a record as Pakistan cruised to a 10-wicket victory over England on Thursday.
Skipper Babar, who was struggling with the bat, scored an unbeaten 110 off 66 balls with 11 fours and five maximums. Meanwhile, Rizwan has continued to impress with the willows as he scored a brilliant 88 not out.
Raining sixes in Karachi 🚀#PAKvENG | #UKSePK pic.twitter.com/4DBmw1k0Fu
— Pakistan Cricket (@TheRealPCB) September 22, 2022
The wicketkeeper-batsman hit five fours and four sixes in his 51-ball innings. This was Pakistan’s highest opening stand in T20I cricket.
Moreover, it was the highest run chase without losing a wicket in all of T20 cricket.
The previous highest T20 score was 169 by New Zealand against Pakistan in 2016. In all T20s, the previous highest was 184 by Kolkata Knight Riders against Gujarat Lions in 2017.
The wicket looked particularly slow in the first innings, as England put up 199 on the scoreboard, which at the time looked tied.
It came thanks to two inconsistent innings from England’s middle order, Ben Duckett’s 22-ball 43 while Moeen Ali’s furious beauty helped him to an unbeaten 55 in 23.
For Pakistan, Haris Rauf and Shahnawaz Durmani took two wickets each.
With this win, Pakistan leveled the seven-match series at 1-1. The third and fourth T20 will be played at the same venue on September 23 and 25, while the remaining three matches will be played at Gaddafi Stadium Lahore.
Both teams made one change as Naseem Shah was replaced by Mohammad Hasnain for the hosts, while Gleeson was replaced by England’s Liam Dawson.
“The wicket doesn’t look that fresh, there are more cracks and we have three spinners,” Ali said. “Dawson really comes into the XI for Gleeson.”
Babur Azam believes that 150-160 can be traced. “We started well in the first ten overs,” he said of the first T20I, “the middle order needs to step up.”
Teams:
Pakistan: 1 Babar Azam (captain), 2 Muhammad Rizwan, 3 Hyder Ali, 4 Shan Masood, 5 Iftikhar Ahmed, 6 Khushdil Shah, 7 Muhammad Nawaz, 8 Shahnawaz Durman, 9 Muhammad Hasnain, 10 Haris Rauf, 11 Usman Qadir.
England: 1 Phil Salt (wicket), 2 Alex Hales, 3 David Mullan, 4 Ben Duckett, 5 Harry Brook, 6 Moeen Ali (captain), 7 Sam Curran, 8 David Wiley, 9 Liam Dawson, 10 Adil Rashid, 11 Luke wood
