Babar Azam failed to make his mark in his record 100th appearance in T20Is in the series opener against New Zealand, scoring just nine runs. But the Pakistan captain looked in sublime touch in the second match of the series at the Gaddafi Stadium in Lahore on Saturday as he smashed a blistering century to power the hosts to 192 for four. And with this knock, Babar broke the staggering figures of Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma in T20 cricket.
Pakistan had a very productive power play in which Babar allowed Mohammad Rizwan to flourish with his 20-ball 32 while he managed 26 for 16. At half-time in the innings, Pakistan were reduced to 4 in the space of just 13 balls. Matt Henry hit two straight.
Babar azam reached his fifty soon after and then quickly changed gears to deal with the boundaries. He was ably assisted by Iftikhar Ahmed in his 19-ball 33 as the two stitched an 87-run stand en route to Babar reaching his third T20I set, which came in the final ball of the innings, a stunning boundary over cover.
With the ton that came during his T20I leadership in Pakistan, Babar Azam set a new T20I world record, surpassing Indian skipper Rohit Sharma for the most hundreds in the format as captain. Overall, he is second to Glenn Maxwell, Colin Munro and Suryakumar Yadav for most T20I tons, with Rohit leading the charts with four such strikes.
It was also his ninth century in T20 cricket, ranking him behind only West Indies legend Chris Gayle. Six have come during his captaincy in the format, which is the second most in the format behind Australia’s Michael Klinger (7). Babar is now ahead of Kohli and Faf du Plessis, both of whom have five such scores.
Babar’s knock along with Haris Rauf’s economical four-wicket haul helped Pakistan win by 38 runs in the second T20I in Lahore.
