Babar Azam finally ended his 807-day wait for a One-day International century, scoring an unbeaten 102 to lead Pakistan to an eight-wicket victory over Sri Lanka in the second match at the Rawalpindi Cricket Stadium on Friday, sealing the three-match series with a game to spare.<\/p>\n
The former Pakistan skipper, under intense scrutiny after 83 innings without a three-figure score, struck eight boundaries in a 119-ball innings that blended patience with poise.<\/p>\n
He reached his milestone in the 47th over, pulling pacer Pramod Madushan to midwicket for a single, before collapsing to his knees in prostration and embracing Mohammad Rizwan at the non-striker\u2019s end. The Rawalpindi crowd erupted, having waited long for this moment.<\/p>\n
Reaching the milestone, Babar equalled former opener Saeed Anwar\u2019s record for the most ODI hundreds for Pakistan \u2014 20 centuries.<\/p>\n
Rizwan played the ideal supporting role, remaining unbeaten on 51 off 54 balls, hitting five fours and a six. The pair added an unbroken 112 for the third wicket, guiding Pakistan across the finish line two balls into the 49th over.<\/p>\n
The chase began explosively. Openers Saim Ayub and Fakhar Zaman raced to 77-0 in the Powerplay. Saim smashed 33 off 25 balls (five fours and a six) before holing out to mid-off off pacer Dushmantha Chameera in the 10th over.<\/p>\n
Fakhar, dropped thrice, anchored with 78 off 93 balls (eight fours and six) before falling to a superb low catch by Janith Liyanage at short midwicket off Chameera in the 31st.<\/p>\n
Sri Lanka\u2019s fielding lapses proved decisive. Fakhar survived a skier spilled by substitute Pavan Rathnayake, a miscued loft dropped by Asitha Fernando at long-off off Charith Asalanka, and an earlier edge. These errors allowed Pakistan to maintain momentum on a pitch offering little after early swing.<\/p>\n
Chameera was Sri Lanka\u2019s only wicket-taker, finishing with 2-58 in 10 overs. The rest struggled: Asitha Fernando leaked 66 in 8.2 overs without success, Pramod Madushan conceded 62 in eight, while Wanindu Hasaranga, usually a threat, went wicketless for 35 in 10. Captain Asalanka\u2019s part-time spin and Janith Liyanage\u2019s medium pace offered no control.<\/p>\n
Babar, initially cautious, grew in confidence. He reached fifty off 66 balls with a short-arm jab through point, then accelerated with trademark cover drives and pulls. Rizwan, joining at 177-2, rotated strike expertly before raising his fifty with a steer to deep midwicket.<\/p>\n
The winning runs came off Asitha in the 49th over \u2014 Babar guiding a low full toss to cover. The pair walked off grinning, series sealed.<\/p>\n
Earlier, having starred with the ball in the opener, Haris Rauf was at it again as Pakistan restricted Sri Lanka to 288-8.<\/p>\n
The pacer, who finished with 3-66, responded each time when called upon, especially when Sri Lanka were threatening to post an even bigger total where he picked up two quick wickets to snuff out their hopes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Babar Azam finally ended his 807-day wait for a One-day International century, scoring an unbeaten 102 to lead Pakistan to an eight-wicket victory over Sri Lanka in the second match at the Rawalpindi Cricket Stadium on Friday, sealing the three-match series with a game to spare. The former Pakistan skipper, under intense scrutiny after 83 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":13432,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13431","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13431","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=13431"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13431\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13433,"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13431\/revisions\/13433"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/13432"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=13431"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=13431"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=13431"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}