Unbeaten Pakistan Makes Proud Entry into the Semis

Web Desk — Winning their fourth consecutive victory against Namibia in the T20 World Cup, Pakistan makes its way smoothly to the semi-finals.

Pakistan are the first team in their group to have booked their place in the semis.

Credit goes to Captain Babar Azam and Mohammad Rizwan for their brilliant half-centuries to give Pakistan a 45-run victory against Namibia. Rizwan finished with 50-ball 79 not out while Babar scored his 23rd Twenty20 international fifty with a 49-ball 70.

Pakistan won the toss and batted — to 189-2 in their 20 overs in Abu Dhabi. In response, Namibia tried their best to win the match with David Wiese notching 43 not out and Craig Williams scoring 40 but Pakistani bowlers were too tough to be played easily. So, Namibia was all over for 144-5 in 20 overs.

Babar and Rizwan made several records

Pakistan’s opening pair Babar Azam and Mohammad Rizwan made several T20I records while playing against Namibia.

The records include most century partnerships ever, most runs as batting partners in a calendar year, most T20I runs by a batter in a calendar year, most scores of 50 or more in T20Is a captain, and most runs after the first 60 innings of a player’s career in T20Is.

Babar and Rizwan scored 113 runs for the first wicket partnership against Namibia, their 5th century stands as batting partners — the most by any batting partners ever in the shortest format of the game.

The Pakistani openers also became the first-ever batting partner in the world to amass 1,000 partnership runs in a calendar year. They’ve scored 1,041 runs this year in 17 partnerships.

Babar breaks another record of Virat Kohli

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.

The Pakistani skipper has now scored 2,402 runs in 60 T20I 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 the first 60 T20I innings in his career.

Mohammad Rizwan entered the record books as the first-ever cricketer to score 900+ T20I runs in a calendar year. No other player has been able to score over 748 in a year.

With 1,651 T20 runs in 2021, Rizwan is 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 wicketkeeper-batsman is hopeful to break Gayle’s record this year.

Rizwan has surpassed Kohli in the highest T20I career averages (minimum qualification 1,000 runs) today with an unbeaten 79 today. Rizwan’s career batting average is 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 becomes the first player to score ten 50+ scores in T20Is in a calendar year. His tally this year includes a century as well.