PAK vs ENG: On Thursday, the world saw the total dominance of arguably the best T20I opening pair in the world. The duo of Babar Azam and Mohammad Rizwan smashed the English bowling attack to register a record win in the second T20I match at the National Stadium, Karachi.
Both batters remained unbeaten to chase down the target of 200 with 10 wickets in hand. With this win, Babar Azam and Pakistan have broken a number of records. It all happened when England won the toss and took a surprise decision to bat first. However, they batted brilliantly and made 199 runs with a flying 23-ball half-century from skipper Moeen Ali (53*).
England gave the hosts a big target of 200 to chase down. But Babar and Rizwan made a mockery of that target and won the match with three balls to spare. The Pakistan skipper answered all the criticism in style and made his second T20I century. He was unbeaten on 111* runs off 66 balls, including 11 fours and five maximums.
Rizwan also carried on his dream form and scored yet another half-century. He made 88* off 51 balls, with five fours and four maximums. Both batters added the highest T20I opening partnership in history. And this was also the first time in T20 internationals that any team chased down the target of 200 without losing any wickets.
PAK vs ENG: Babar Azam breaks the record of Virat Kohli, in the record partnership with Mohammad Rizwan
Pakistan won the match by 10 wickets for the second time in T20Is. The first instance came against India in the T20 World Cup 2021. Babar has now become the third player to score two T20I centuries as a captain after Rohit Sharma (India) and Faheem Nazir (Switzerland). Pakistan made 203/0 in 19.3, which is the highest successful chase without losing a wicket in T20Is and it was also the third highest chase for Pakistan in the shorter format.
The 203-run opening partnership between Babar and Rizwan is now the highest opening stand in the second innings of a T20 international. As a captain, Babar Azam (1605 in 44 innings) has now scored the third highest T20I runs. He is just behind Aaron Finch (1993 runs) and Kane Williamson (1674). The Pakistani skipper went past Virat Kohli, who has scored 1570 runs in 46 innings.
The pair of Babar and Rizwan have scored the most runs (1929 in 36 innings) in T20I history together. They went past the Indian pair of Rohit and Shikhar Dhawan (1743 in 52 innings). With his knock, the Pakistani skipper has also completed 8000 international runs in his 218th innings and broke the record of Virat Kohli (243 innings). The fastest is Chris Gayle, who took 213 innings to do so.