NED vs PAK: Babar Azam Breaks Yet Another Record Of Hashim Amla In First ODI

Pakistan captain Babar Azam on Tuesday did what he has been great in doing for the last few years. Entering the record books and filling pages with his terrific form at the moment. This time it was former South Africa batter Hashim Amla’s record chased by the Pakistan elegant player.

After Pakistan won the toss and opted to bat first, the openers found it difficult to score runs and Netherlands pacer Vivian Kingma put them under pressure straightaway after claiming Imam-ul-Haq for leg before wicket, via DRS, in the sixth over.

Babar Azam breaks Hashim Amla’s tally after completing 88 ODI innings

Fakhar Zaman and Babar staged the recovery of the early blow in their 168-run alliance for the second wicket. Fakhar was playing the aggressor’s role and brought up his seventh ODI hundred with the 12 fours and a solitary six. The southpaw’s run-a-ball 109 was ended after he was run out by the collective efforts of Bas de Leede and Scott Edwards in the 37th over.

Babar scored 74 off 85 balls, including six fours and a six, before perishing off Logan van Beek’s bowling. The Pakistan captain has now amassed 4516 runs in 88 ODI innings at 59.42 with 20 fifties and 17 hundreds. Babar surpassed Amla’s tally of 4473 runs in the same number of innings. The fact that no other player has gone this far after playing 88 ODI innings during his career makes Babar promise to break more records along the line.

Pakistan beat the Netherlands by 16 runs in first ODI

Shadab Khan’s late cameo of 48 not out in 28 balls propelled Pakistan to a compelling score of 314/6 in the first innings.

The hosts caused saw a big hope in the chase with three fifties by Vikramjit Singh (65), Tom Cooper (65) and Edwards (71). The last two batters kept them in the hunt through firing knocks. Netherlands’ chase faltered with two wickets in as many balls when they needed 34 runs from 13 balls.

Cooper and Vikramjit’s 98-run stand brought the game back on track for the Dutchmen just after three wickets fell inside 13 overs. Pakistan pulled things back in the death overs as Naseem Shah and Haris Rauf finished with three wickets apiece.

Also Read: Babar Azam Continues His Dominance In ICC ODI Player Rankings, Extends Lead As Top-ranked Batter