ISLAMABAD, Nov 03 (APP): Where the whole Pakistani cricket fraternity was depressed by New Zealand and England for abandoning their tours to Pakistan, at this time a dominating performance by Green-shirts in the ongoing ICC T20 Men’s World Cup have brought a shaft of light among the nation that cricket cannot be taken-out of the sports loving country.
Besides, leading the points table in Group B and becoming the first team to cruise into the semifinals spot, Pakistan have also broken many other records.
The Green-shirts not only broke the World Cup myth by beating India in their opener but overpowered the Men in Blue with a 10 wicket victory in the extravaganza.
In the second match against New Zealand, Pakistan hammered the Kiwis by five wickets, who abandoned their tour to Pakistan at the last moment when the teams were going to play the first ODI of the three-match series.
The Green-shirts didn’t stop here and went onto beat Afghanistan and Namibia by five wickets and 45 runs, respectively, thus becoming the first team to cruise into the semifinals spot of the tournament.
Pakistan’s opening pair Babar Azam and Mohammad Rizwan have continued their stellar form in the T20 World Cup and put on yet another powerful performance by scoring half-centuries and putting on 113 runs for the first wicket during the match against Namibia on Tuesday.
With this, Babar and Rizwan surpassed records including most century partnerships ever, most runs as batting partners in a calendar year, most T20 runs by a batter in a calendar year, most scores of 50 or more in T20s as captain and most runs after first 60 innings of a player’s career in T20s.
Both scored 113 runs for the first wicket partnership against Namibia, their 5th century-stand as batting partners, the most by any batting partners ever in the shortest format of the game.
They surpassed the Indian duo of Rohit Sharma and Shikhar Dhawan and New Zealand’s Martin Guptill and Kane Williamson both have scored four centuries in their partnerships.
The Pakistani openers also became the first ever batting partners in the world to amass 1,000 partnership runs in a calendar year. They have scored 1,041 runs this year in 17 partnerships.
Babar Azam, with his 70 off 49 in the innings, broke Indian skipper Virat Kohli’s record as well. He now holds the record of most 50+ scores as a captain in T20Is.
Babar now has 14 50+ scores, including one 100+ score, one more than Kohli. The Indian captain has posted 13 scores of 50 or more.
The flamboyant batsman from Pakistan has now scored 2,402 runs in 60 T20 innings in his career — the most by any batsman at this stage of his T20I career.
Kohli, by comparison, had scored 2,167 runs after first 60 T20 innings in his career.
Rizwan entered the record books as the first ever cricketer to score 900+ T20 runs in a calendar year. No other player has been able to score over 748 in a year.
Rizwan passed his team mate Babar (1,607) and Kohli (1,614) in the list of most overall T20 runs in a calendar year. With 1,651 T20 runs in 2021, Rizwan was now only four runs behind Chris Gayle in the list of most T20 runs in a calendar year.
The West Indian had scored 1,665 runs in 2015. The Pakistani wicket keeper batsman is certain to break Gayle’s record this year.
He has also surpassed Kohli in the highest T20 career averages (minimum qualification 1,000 runs) with an unbeaten 79 in the match. Rizwan’s career batting average was now 52.66 among all the 73 batsmen who have at least scored 1,000 career runs.
Kohli’s career average is 52.01. Rizwan has also become the first player to score ten 50+ scores in T20s in a calendar year.
