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NZ T20I tri-series: Babar breaks Kohli's record, becomes fastest Asian batter to attain HISTORIC feat

NZ T20I tri-series: Babar breaks Kohli's record, becomes fastest Asian batter to attain HISTORIC feat

Babar Azam breaks Virat Kohli's record, becomes fastest Asian batter to attain elite feat.

Babar Azam-led Pakistan locked horns with Bangladesh in the last group stage encounter of the ongoing T20I tri-series in New Zealand on Thursday (October 13). With both Pakistan and hosts New Zealand set to lock horns in the summit clash on Friday (October 14), the Men in Green aimed to finish off the group stage on a high and managed to do that with a convincing seven-wicket win over the Bangla Tigers at theHagley Oval, Christchurch.

During the clash, skipper Babar Azam impressed with a 40-ball 55, laced with nine fours, to play a key role in his side's big win. By virtue of his knock, the right-hander also broke former Indian captain Virat Kohli's record to become the fastest Asian batter to reach the 11,000-run club at the international level. Babar took 251 innings to reach the 11k-run club whereas Kohli achieved the feat in 261 innings.

Fastest Asian batter to reach 11,000 runs in international cricket

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Babar Azam 251 innings

Virat Kohli 261 innings

Sunil Gavaskar 262 innings

Javed Miandad 266 innings

On the other hand, Babar also moved past Indian skipper Rohit Sharma in the list of batters most half-centuries in the format. Hitman has 28 fifties under his belt whereas the Pakistan captain slammed his 29th half-century during his side's win over their Asian neighbours.

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Talking about the contest, Bangladesh opted to bat first after being knocked out of the race for the final. Riding on half-centuries from captain Shakib Al Hasan and Liton Das, they managed to post a competitive 173 for 6. However, it wasn't enough as Pakistan openers Md Rizwan (69) and Babar (55) stitched a 101-run opening stand before Mohammad Nawaz's 25-ball 40 took his side home on the penultimate ball of the contest.

At the post-match presentation, Babar said, "Definitely happy, the team is playing very well, winning is always good. We didn't bowl well, made some basic mistakes, myself and Rizwan started well with Nawaz finishing it off. We will learn from this and think the middle-order stepping up is good for the team. We will have to field better though, that's one area where improvement is needed, we'll try to give our 100% in tomorrow's final."