In the opening match of the Asia Cup in Multan on Wednesday, inspiring skipper Babar Azam set his place among the all-time greats with a stunning century against Nepal.
Babar scored a superb 151 from 131 deliveries, overtaking South Africa's Hashim Amla to become the fastest player in the game's history to score 19 ODI hundreds.
Babar achieved his goal after only 102 ODI innings, while Amla had previously held the record with 104 innings.
During his outstanding innings, the world's top ODI batter blasted 14 fours and four big sixes, breaking more records.
- The 151 was the second-highest Asia Cup total, just beaten by Virat Kohli's 183 against Pakistan in 2012.
Babar Azam made the second-highest score in Asia Cup history on Wednesday 👏#PAKvNEP pic.twitter.com/OQ6VoFoVfd
— ICC (@ICC) August 30, 2023
- It was the first time a captain of Pakistan Babar Azam scored 150 or more runs in an Asia Cup, beating Kohli's previous best of 136 against Bangladesh in 2014.
It was just the second time Babar Azam scored more than 150 runs in an ODI, with his 158-run performance against England in Birmingham in 2021 remaining his highest ODI score. With this knock, Babar maintains his dominating lead to the MRF Tyres ODI Batting Rankings.
This match raised Babar's ODI average to an incredible 59.47, the fourth-highest in men's ODI history and the best of any player with at least 2,000 ODI runs.
- It was Babar's 31st international century, matching with fellow Pakistan great Javed Miandad and Saeed Anwar, just Younis Khan (41), Mohammad Yousuf (39) and Inzamam-ul-Haq (35) in front of him.
A superb ton from the skipper 💯
— ICC (@ICC) August 30, 2023
Babar Azam now has as many international hundreds as Pakistan legends Javed Miandad and Saeed Anwar 👏#PAKvNEP | 📝: https://t.co/5ewtl5FKT7 pic.twitter.com/t74KKxJkye
- This means Babar is just a single century closer to surpassing Anwar's record of 20 ODI centuries, the most by any player in the country.
Considering the Asia Cup has only just begun and the thirteenth edition of the ICC Men's Cricket World Cup just weeks away, that means Babar will have an opportunity to break even more records by the end of the year as a whole.
Pakistan's next Asia Cup match is against India in Pallekele on Saturday, while their first World Cup match this year is against the Netherlands in Hyderabad on October 6.
