Babar, Rizwan smash T20I world record held by Rohit, Rahul

Pakistan captain Babar Azam and Mohammad
Rizwan have scripted a world record as a batting pair while opening the innings
in a T20I against West Indies in Karachi on Friday. Babar and Rizwan went past
the Indian opening duo of Rohit Sharma and KL Rahul. While scoring their
respective half-century during their third T20I against West Indies in Karachi
on Friday, the two also scripted their individual world records.

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In response to West Indies’ massive target
of 208 runs in the final T20I of the three-match series, Rizwan and Babar
shared a stellar 158-run stand for the opening partnership. It was their sixth
as a pair in T20I cricket, the most by a combination, as they went past the
Indian pair of Rahul and Rohit, who has five such partnerships to their name.

Meanwhile, it was Babar and Rizwan’s fourth
150-plus stand as an opening pair, all of which came in 2021, and they are the
first Pakistani pair to notch such a remarkable batting record in the shortest
format of the game. The stand was also their second-highest as a pair after
their partnership of 197 against South Africa earlier this year.

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Individual records achieved 

Babar scored 79 off 53 balls while Rizwan
scored 86 off 45. It was Babar’s 20th fifty-plus score in T20I in this calendar
year, which is the most by any cricketer in a single year. Rizwan, on the other
hand, reached 2000 runs figure in T20 cricket in 2021 which is the most by a
player in a calendar year. Earlier, during the T20 World Cup tournament in the
UAE, Rizwan had surpassed West Indies batting legend Chris Gayle to become the
highest run-getter in T20Is in a calendar year. Babar too had gone past the
veteran batsman during Pakistan’s semi-final game, to take the second spot
behind Rizwan.

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Asif Ali added the finishing touches with
his incredible seven-ball 21 as Pakistan completed their highest successful
T20I chase to script a 3-0 whitewash over the West Indies.