Dubai: Pakistan advanced to the semi-finals of the T20 World Cup after defeating Namibia by 45 runs in Abu Dhabi – their fifth appearance in the final in seven championships.
Pakistani blowers successfully prevented Namibian batters to 144 for five, which guaranteed the victory for Pakistan to become the first country to reach the T20 World Cup semis for the fifth time.
This was Pakistan’s fourth consecutive victory in the tournament after they had defeated India, New Zealand, and Afghanistan in their previous fixtures.
Skipper Babar Azam and Mohammad Rizwan have received a number of T20I records during their T20 World Cup match against Namibia, on Tuesday in Abu Dhabi stadium.
Most century partnerships in T20Is, 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 by a captain, and most runs after 60 innings of a player’s career in T20Is are among the records.
Babar and Rizwan put up a 113-run first-wicket stand against Namibia, their fifth century partnership as batting partners and the highest by any batting partners in the game’s shortest format.
They have broken the record of Rohit Sharma and Shikhar Dhawan of India and Martin Guptill and Kane Williamson of New Zealand, as both of whom have four hundreds between them.
The Pakistani openers also made history by being the first batting partners in the world to reach 1,000 runs in a calendar year. This year, they’ve scored 1,041 runs in 17 partnerships.
With his 70 from 49 in the innings, Babar Azam also broke Indian skipper Virat Kohli’s record. In T20Is, he now owns the record for most 50+ scores as a captain.
Babar currently has 14 50+ scores, one more than Kohli, including one 100+ score. The Indian skipper has a total of 13 50-point games.
The brilliant batsman from Pakistan has now achieved 2,402 runs in 60 T20I innings in his career — the most by any batsman uptio now during his T20I career. Kohli, by comparison, had scored 2,167 runs after first 60 T20I innings during his career.
Mohammad Rizwan, Babar’s batting partner, became the first cricketer in history to achieve 900+ T20I runs in a calendar year. No other player has ever scored more than 748 points in a single year.
With an unbeaten 79 today, he has now eclipsed Kohli in the highest T20I career averages (minimum qualification 1,000 runs). Rizwan currently has a career batting average of 52.66 among the 73 batsmen who have hit at least 1,000 runs.
Kohli’s career average is 52.01.
Rizwan also made history by becoming the first player in T20I history to score eleven 50-plus scores in a calendar year. This year’s tally also includes a century.