Babar Azam sets two more records in ODI cricket

By Mushtaq A Subhani

Pakistan captain and world’s top batter Babar Azam continued his record-breaking spree when he set two more records in One-day International cricket while playing in the fourth ODI against New Zealand at the National Stadium Karachi on May 5.

He played a brilliant innings of 107 runs from 117 balls with ten boundaries to guide Pakistan in thrashing New Zealand by 102 runs to take a 4-0 lead in the five-match series. The victory helped his team to become the number one in the world for the first time since the ODI rankings were introduced in 2005.

When Babar reached 19 during the innings, he completed his 5,000 runs in the 50-over format of the game. He became the fastest batter to cross the milestone in his 97th innings and in 99 ODIs. He broke the record set earlier by South Africa’s Hashim Amla in 101 innings from 104 matches.

Babar is the 14th Pakistani and the 91st batter in the world to achieve this feat in his ODI career.

It was the 18th ODI hundred, scored by the 28-year-old stylish batter, who also became the fastest player to hit 18 centuries in 97 innings and 99 matches, beating again Amla’s record of 18 tons in 102 innings.

Babar, ranked number one in ODIs, is playing international cricket for the last eight years and captaining the national team in all three formats of the game. He has so far made 5,088 runs in 99 One-day Internationals at an impressive average of 59.85.