Babar Azam Creates Multiple Records With His Asia Cup Century: The much-awaited Asia Cup 2023 has been started with flying colours yesterday(August 30). Pakistan and Nepal were scheduled to face each other on the opening day of the continental tournament.
Babar Azam Creates Multiple Records With His Asia Cup Century
Pakistan cricket team showed a confident approach to the tournament by naming their playing 11 much earlier to the toss. Later Babar Azam explains the reason for the move during the toss.
Babar Azam led Pakistan handed a 238-run defeat to Nepal and moved to the top of the Asia Cup 2023 points table. Though Pakistan lost a couple of early wickets, captain Babar Azam made a stand and led the team towards a glorious victory.
Babar Azam scored 151 runs with 14 boundaries and 4 sixes and was sent out by Sompal in the last over of the 1st inning. With Babar’s 19th ODI century and Iftikhar Ahmed’s maiden century, Pakistan scored 342 runs for a 6-wicket loss at the end of 50 overs.
Records Created by Babar Azam with his Asia Cup Century
- The 151 was the second-highest score achieved at the Asia Cup, only bettered by Virat Kohli’s 183 against Pakistan in 2012
- It was the first time a captain has scored 150 or greater at an Asia Cup, beating the previous best from a skipper when Kohli compiled 136 against Bangladesh in 2014
- It was just the second time Babar has scored more than 150 in an ODI, with his innings of 158 against England at Birmingham in 2021 still his highest ODI score
- The knock sees Babar maintain his healthy lead as the No.1 ranked player on the MRF Tyres ODI Batting Rankings
- The innings boosted Babar’s ODI average to an astonishing 59.47, which is the fourth highest of all time in men’s ODI cricket and the best of any player with a minimum of 2000 ODI runs
- It was Babar’s 31st international century, drawing him level with Pakistan legends Javed Miandad and Saeed Anwar with Younis Khan (41), Mohammad Yousuf (39) and Inzamam-ul-Haq (35) the only players from the country in front of him
- It means Babar is now just one century away from equalling Anwar’s record of 20 ODI centuries – the most by any player from the country
On winning the toss, Pakistan captain Babar Azam chose to bat first. But the openers were not impressive as they were sent out on low figures within the completion of the seventh over. With Babar Azam and Rizwan’s Partnership score of 86 runs, Pakistan got back into the competition.
After Mohammad Rizwan and Agha Salman’s dismissal, Iftikhar Ahmed was excellent as he scored his first maiden hundred in the ODI on 67 balls. On the other hand, Babar Azam registered his 19th ODI century and led Pakistan to register a total of 342 runs for 6 6-wicket loss at the end of 50 overs.
Unable to fold Pakistan with a low total, Kushal Bhurtel and Aasif Sheikh opened for Nepal and were sent out with 8 and 5 runs respectively. With captain Rohit Paudel dismissed with a duck by Shaheen Afridi, Nepal was down to 3 wickets scoring only 14 runs in the 2nd over.
Aarif Sheikh and Sompal Kami had scored 26 and 28 runs respectively and were sent out by Haris Rauf. Nepal batters were not able to withstand the bowling attacks of Pakistan. Shadab Khan was impressive through his bowling as he scalped 4 wickets giving 27 runs in 7 overs. Shaheen Afridi and Haris Rauf scalped two wickets each. At the end, Nepal had lost all 10 wickets scoring only 104 runs in 23.4 overs.
After their first match against Nepal in Asia Cup 2023, Pakistan will be facing India in a highly anticipated encounter on September 2 at Pallekele International Stadium, Kandy.
