Babar Azam hits fastest century in 26 balls

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babar azam

Faisalabad: The raining of sixes and fours in Shahid Afridi’s foundation’s charity T10 match witnessed some power hitting as Babar Azam and Shoaib Malik put on quite a show with the bat. Malik smoked six sixes in an over off Azam’s bowling to help SAF Red score 210 runs in 10 overs. Azam got his revenge during the run chase, as he powered SAF Green’s reply with a 26-ball hundred. The right-hander clobbered eleven sixes and seven boundaries, scoring at a strike rate of 384.62. Fittingly, Afridi hit the winning runs for SAF green with a boundary.

The T10 format of cricket is already grabbing the attention of the world. However, the exploits of Babar Azam and Shoaib Malik in a recent T10 match have made the world sit up and take notice. Although an official match, the recent T10 charity game featuring the Green and Red teams of the Shahid Afridi Foundation has created several talking points. In this game, Babar Azam slammed a record century while Shoaib Malik did a Yuvraj Singh and blasted six sixes in an over.

According to article published in NDTV, Last year, Pakistan’s coach Mickey Arthur compared Azam to Virat Kohli, saying the 23-year-old reminds him of the India skipper at the same age.

However, in an interview to ESPNCricinfo, Azam said he shouldn’t be compared to such a “big player” and claimed that Kohli is “the No.1 batsman in the world”.

https://twitter.com/Obaid_U_Afridi/status/944937797718290433

“He compared me with a very big player. I think it shouldn’t be done. But that is the coach’s thinking. Maybe the stats at the start of our careers are similar, but he is the No.1 batsman in the world. I want to perform at a high level for Pakistan too,” said Azam.

Also Read : Babar Azam quashes comparison with `big player` Kohli

Azam scored 46 runs off 52 balls in Pakistan’s ICC Champions Trophy 2017 title triumph over India in June earlier this year.

The stylish right-hander has played 36 ODIs so far in his career, scoring 1,758 runs at an average of 58.60. He has seven half-centuries and seven hundreds to his name.