The Babar Azam-led Pakistan Cricket Team has jumped to second place in the ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup Super-League tally following their 2-1 series win against South Africa on Thursday.
Pakistan has thus far featured in six ODI Super League matches, winning four and losing two. They have accumulated 40 points thanks to those four victories and they find themselves behind world championship England in the table.
Eoin Morgan’s England have also won four matches but they have played a total of nine matches. The world champions beat Ireland 2-1 last summer to kickstart their campaign but since then they have suffered consecutive series defeats against Australia and India by a margin of 1-2.
They are, however, ahead of Pakistan due to a superior net run rate. While Pakistan’s net run rate is 0.422, England’s NRR is 0.468.
Alhumdulillah, this series win is for you Pakistan. Extremely proud of this champion team. Special shout out to @FakharZamanLive his remarkable innings. Well played @OfficialCSA. #SAvPAK pic.twitter.com/xsOaQzQ32t
— Babar Azam (@babarazam258) April 7, 2021
Pakistan will play their next set of ODI Super League games against England in the forthcoming English summer.
The ODI Super League includes 12 full-member nationals and Netherlands. Each team will play eight bilateral rubbers of three matches- four home and four away- against eight of the 12 full-member nations in order to earn a direct qualification for the 2023 50-over World Cup in India.
Speaking of Pakistan, the Men in Green have become just the second cricketing nation after Australia to win more than one ODI bilateral rubber on South African soil.
This was also Pakistan’s first bilateral ODI series win against a top-5 nation, the last of which also came against the Proteas way back in 2013.
The win in the final ODI was set-up by their top-3- Imam-ul-Haq (57), Fakhar Zaman (101) and Babar Azam (94)- and a quickfire cameo by Hasan Ali (32 off 11 balls) and backed up by a brilliant bowling effort by the likes of Shaheen Shah Afridi (3/58), Haris Rauf (2/45) and Mohammad Nawaz (3/34).
Here’s a look at the ICC ODI Super League points table-