Pakistan vs Australia: Babar Azam Achieves Historic First For A Pak Captain In ODIs vs Australia

Pakistan captain Babar Azam stood strong in a high-octane run-chase to help his team win the second ODI against Australia in Lahore on Thursday. The win brought the series back on level terms after Australia's comfortable 88-run victory in the first ODI a few days ago. Apart from Babar, opening batter Imam-ul-Haq also scored a fine century (106) as the duo battled out a tough middle phase of bowling to overhaul the target of 349 runs, set by Australia. Despite some stand out batting performances from both sides, Babar once again stole the limelight as he became the first Pakistan captain to score a hundred against Australia in ODI cricket.

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No Pakistan captain had ever scored a century against Australia in the history of ODI cricket with the previous high score belonging to former skipper Imran Khan. Imran had scored 82 runs in the Brisbane ODI in 1990 against Australia.

After Imran is Javed Miandad, who scored 74 not out in Sharjah in 1987 while former captains Inzamam-ul-Haq and Mohammad Hafeez also made it to the list with a high score of 72 in ODIs against Australia.

Babar's knock was nothing less than a masterclass as he went on to hit 11 fours and one six, scoring at an impressive strike-rate of 137.35.

This century by Babar also helped him scale another huge record. He became the fastest batter to score 15 ODI tons, bringing up the milestone in his 83rd inning. This was 23 innings faster than third-placed Virat Kohli.

Former South Africa batter Hashim Amla is second on the list as he had completed his 15 centuries in 86 innings.

Topics mentioned in this article

Pakistan Cricket Team Australia Cricket Team Babar Azam Virat Kohli Cricket