Lahore: Babar Azam scored another brilliant T20I hundred in Lahore in his 101st T20I to put Pakistan in the driving seat after he opted to bat first on winning the toss.
The Pakistan skipper put on a 99-run opening stand with Mohammad Rizwan, before the wicketkeeper was dismissed in the 11th over of the innings. Matt Henry, fresh off a hat-trick last game, sent back Fakhar Zaman next ball to dent Pakistan further.
Babar, however, continued in the same vein, getting to his half-century off 36 balls. He stepped on the pedal thereafter, slamming 51 runs off the next 22 balls, including 36 runs off the last three overs.
He completed his century off the final ball of the innings, smashing James Neesham for two fours and a six in the last over.
The 58-ball ton was Babar’s third T20I ton. Notably, he is the only Pakistan batter with more than one hundred in the format. The hundred puts Babar close to the top of the list of batters with most T20I tons.
Rohit Sharma with four T20I hundreds tops the list with five other batters, including Babar now, on three hundreds. Notably, both Babar and Rohit have 33 scores of fity or more in T20Is, second only to Virat Kohli, who has 38 such scores.
Players with most T20I hundreds
Player Country T20I hundreds T20I fifties
Rohit Sharma India 4 29
Babar Azam Pakistan 3 30
Sabawoon Davizi Czech Republic 3 5
Glenn Maxwell Australia 3 10
Colin Munro New Zealand 3 11
Suryakumar Yadav India 3 13
Pakistan posted 192/4 on board with Babar remaining unbeaten on 101. He shared an unbeaten 87-run partnership for the fifth wicket with Iftikhar Ahmed (33 not out off 19 balls) to lead Pakistan’s surge in the late overs.
Courtesy: ICC