Pakistan skipper Babar Azam led from the front and propelled his side to a nine-wicket win in the thir🔜d T20I against South Africa at SuperSport Park in C♎enturion on Wednesday.
Azam hit a 49-ball century, which is 🐼now the fastest by a captain in the shortest format of the game. With the help of his maiden T20I ton, Pakistan chased down the mammoth target of 204 with two overs to sp♈are.
Azam, who recently dethroned Indian talisman Virat Kohli from the top position in the latest released ICC ODI rankings, smashed 15 fours and four sixes in his 59-ball stay at the crease. His opening partner, Mohammad Rizwan, scored an unbeaten 73 off 47 as they added a record first wic🗹ket part🃏nership of 197.
Pakistan has now taken a 2-1 lead in the four-match se♔ries.
Brief scores:
South Africa 203-5 (Aiden Markram 63, Janneman Malꦍan 55) lost to Pakistan 20𝐆5-1 (Babar Azam 122, Mohammad Rizwan 73 not out) by 9 wickets.
Here’s how Twitter reacted:
aaj aapka din hai MashaAllah🍬! Khuda karay har din aapka din or Pakistan ka din ho🙏🏽 Loved that 💯 ! Congratulations team wonderful stuff🙌🏽
— Imad Wasim (@simadwasim)
Yet another superb win by Pakistan. Great performance! This new Aggressive & Go-Getter mentality is simply me🌌ritorious.Right attitude & great team effort. Led from the front by & Dear u are a champ!Must also appreciate Welldone
— Faisal Javed Khan (@FaisalJavedKhan)
Baber Azam & Rizwan shown sublime batting performance. A dream partnership by The openers. Boys in Green were at their best. Babar has simply proven that he is nu𝄹mber 1 batsman of the world. Congratulations Pakistan!!!
— Shehryar Afridi (@ShehryarAfridi1)
Brilliant Babar with Supreme author🤪ity wins another series.
— Shoaib Akhtar (@shoaib100mph)
This is the fastest T20 century by a Pakistani batsman – What an innings by Babar Azam!
— Wajahat Kazmi (@KazmiWajahat)
To me this is one of the greatest t20i innings of all times. Absolutely amazing!
Take a bow 🙏🏽🇵🇰— Ahmad Shahzad 🇵🇰 (@iamAhmadshahzad)
Century by
Brilliant batting 👏👏👏— Farah Iqrar (@farah_iqrar_)
Pakistan have played some go⛎od cricket quite often since the pandemic. Congrats on what must have been an outstanding batting performance by Babar Azam and Rizwan again.
— Ian Raphael Bishop (@irbishi)
Most 100s in T20s since 2019
5 Babar Azam
3 Dawid Malan— Mazher Arshad (@MazherArshad)
Babar Azam out after scoringꩲ 122. Highest individual score by a Pakistani in T20Is, high🍒est individual score by anyone against South Africa. 197 for the first wicket with Rizwan, highest by any team in a run chase, highest for any wicket against SA, highest for any wicket for Pak
— Faizan Lakhani (@faizanlakhani)
Wow that was a propeꦅr batting masterclass from the world number 1 🧸 💯
— Maz Bonafide (@MazBONAFIDE)
Babar Azam "This is another milestone in my career🌱, which will now require even more hard work & consistency in order for me to hold on to the ranking for an extended period of time, like Sir Vivian Richards from January 1984 to October 1988 & Virat 𝔍Kohli for 1,258 days"
— Saj Sadiq (@SajSadiqCricket)
//twitter.com/APMLOfficial_/status/138🌳2362289504849924
Winning wit𒐪h two overs to spare,quite a performance,great running b/w th🌜e wickets by Riz and Babar as well,fantastic all round.
— zainab abbas (@ZAbbasOfficial)
