Babar Azam scored a century against Sri LankaImage Credit source: PTI
PAK vs SL: The wait of more than 2 years for Pakistan’s star batsman and former captain Babar Azam is over. Babar Azam, who was failing for the last several innings, finally scored a century in international cricket. In the second ODI against Sri Lanka in Rawalpindi, Babar played an innings of 102 runs while chasing the target and thus heaved a sigh of relief by scoring a century in international cricket for the first time since August 2023. On the basis of this innings, Pakistan defeated Sri Lanka by 8 wickets and took a 2-0 lead in the 3-match series.
The second ODI match of the series was played on Friday 14 November under the changed schedule under tight security after the terrorist attack in Islamabad. In this match, in response to the target of 289 runs set by Sri Lanka, Fakhar Zaman and Saim Ayub made a quick partnership of 77 runs for Pakistan within 10 overs. Babar Azam came after Ayub’s dismissal, who was under pressure to score a century. Babar completed his half-century and made exactly 100 runs partnership with Fakhar Zaman.
Became number-1 by scoring a century after 83 innings
From here Babar’s eyes were fixed and he slowly took steps towards his century. During this time, Babar got the support of his special friend Mohammad Rizwan. Both of them took the team closer to victory and when victory was just 6 runs away, Babar completed his century by taking 1 run on the first ball of the 48th over. The former captain ended the wait of 83 innings and 807 days by scoring this century in 115 balls. Babar’s previous century came against Nepal on 30 August 2023 in the Asia Cup.
With this century, Babar became number-1 in ODI cricket for Pakistan. He equaled former Pakistani legend Saeed Anwar’s record of 20 ODI centuries. But the star batsman achieved this milestone in only 136 innings, whereas Anwar had scored so many centuries in 244 innings. Babar returned unbeaten after scoring 102 runs, while Rizwan also played an inning of 51 runs.
Sri Lankan batsman failed to play big innings
Before this, no Sri Lankan batsman had failed to play a big innings. Almost all the batsmen of the team got a good start but they kept getting out as soon as they crossed the 20 or 40 run mark. Janith Liyanage (54) was the only batsman to score a half-century. Apart from them, Kamindu Mendis (44) and Wanindu Hasaranga (37) played fast innings in the lower order, on the basis of which Sri Lanka was successful in scoring 288 runs losing 8 wickets. Haris Rauf and Abrar Ahmed took 3-3 wickets for Pakistan. The last match of the series will be played on Sunday 16 November.