South Africa claimed the T20 series 2-0 by defeating Pakistan by 7 wickets in the second match last night in Centurion. Chasing 206 runs, Heinrich Klaasen’s team won with three balls to spare. Pakistan’s star Babar Azam made some notable records with his 31-run innings off 20 balls.
Before the match, Babar’s total runs across all formats stood at 13,998. After Mohammad Rizwan was dismissed in the fourth over, Babar came in and hit a boundary off the first ball, becoming the fifth Pakistani to reach 14,000 international runs. Previously, this milestone had been achieved by Inzamam-ul-Haq, Younis Khan, Mohammad Yousuf, and Javed Miandad. Babar’s current tally is 14,029 runs in 338 innings. Inzamam leads with 20,580 runs in 551 innings, followed by Younis with 17,790 runs in 491 innings, Yousuf with 17,300 runs in 432 innings, and Miandad with 16,213 runs in 407 innings.
In this match, Babar also set the record for the fastest 11,000 runs in T20 internationals. He reached 11,020 runs in 298 innings, surpassing Chris Gayle’s record, who took 314 innings to reach 11,000. Babar now holds the records for the fastest 7,000, 9,000, and 10,000 runs in T20 cricket as well.
However, there is another Pakistani batsman with more T20 runs than Babar in international cricket. That player is all-rounder Shoaib Malik, who, after making his debut five years after Babar’s birth, has scored 13,415 T20 runs in 505 innings, ranking second behind Chris Gayle.
In addition to his international and T20 records, Babar also reached the 26,000-run mark in professional cricket during this innings. Pakistan’s highest score in this match came from opener Saim Ayub, who remained unbeaten on 98 runs off 57 balls, hitting 5 sixes and 11 fours. Irfan Khan also played a key role, contributing 30 runs off 16 balls to help Pakistan exceed 200.
However, South African openers had other plans, especially Riza Hendricks, who scored a match-winning 117 runs off 63 balls, including 10 sixes and 7 fours. Rassie van der Dussen sealed the win with an unbeaten 66 runs off 38 balls. The third and final match of the series will be played in Johannesburg at 10 PM tonight.
Brief Score:
Pakistan: 206/5 in 20 overs (Saim 98*, Babar 31, Irfan 30, Rizwan 11, Abbas 11*; Dayaan 2/21, Bertman 2/51, Linda 1/28)
South Africa: 210/3 in 19.3 overs (Hendricks 117, Du Preez 66*, Britz 12, Klassen 8*; Jahan Dad 2/40, Abbas 1/46, Abrar 0/29, Harris 0/57)
Result: South Africa won by 7 wickets
Series: South Africa leads the three-match series 2-0
Player of the Match: Riza Hendricks (South Africa)
