Srinagar: Pakistan star batter Babar Azm let his bat do the talking by scoring a century after former captain Sarfaraz Ahmed took a brutal sledging dig at Babar during Champions Cup in Faisalabad.
Babar scored a century after a video showing Sarfaraz Ahmed seemingly directed a sledge at Babar Azam.
Babar Azam did struggle for runs in the recently-completed Test series at home against Bangladesh, where the home team succumbed to a humiliating 0-2 whitewash, but the star batter bounced back to form on Thursday with a century in the ongoing Champions One-Day Cup in Pakistan.
The triple-figure score came in the same match where former Pakistan captain Sarfaraz Ahmed seemingly directed a sledge at Babar.
In the seventh match of the domestic tournament, the Saud Shakeel-led Dolphins got off to a promising start with incumbent Pakistan Test skipper Shan Masood and Yasir Khan putting on a 76-run opening stand against the Stallions, captained by Mohammad Haris. After the dismissal of the former, Babar made his way to the crease and the crowd at Faisalabad, his home ground, went berserk.
Moments later, Stallions wicketkeeper Sarfaraz, in a bid to encourage his teammates, was caught on stump mic saying, “No hurry, no hurry! Let them [the crowd] keep chirping ‘Babar, Babar’. We’ll make him play 40 overs, all the others will get out.”
The video of that incident went viral on social media instantly, with fans reckoning that Sarfaraz took a brutal dig at Babar’s form and strike rate.
However, Babar dominated the proceedings thereafter with the bat, even as the Stallions lost wickets on a regular interval, and eventually notched up the century in 99 balls, before finishing on 104 off 100 balls. Following the knock, Sarfaraz was trolled on social media, especially after he was dismissed for just five runs in 15 balls.
With the knock, Babar amassed 30 List-A centuries and broke former India captain Kohli’s record for being the fastest batter in the world to reach the milestone. He scored his 30th century in the format in 180 innings, 19 fewer than previous record-holder Kohli.
The unbeaten knock of 104 also saw Stallions beat Dolphins by an emphatic margin of 174 runs after Jahandad Khan and Mehran Mumtaz’s three-wicket hauls folded the side for just 97 runs in the chase of 272.