Record-breaker Babar reaches another milestone
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4 Mar 25
Babar Azam, Pakistan's captain, has a tendency of breaking and creating new records practically every time he bats. The 27-year-old right-hander missed out on a century for just 23 runs in Pakistan's second One-Day International against the West Indies on Friday, but he still managed to make history.
It was Babar's ninth consecutive fifty-plus score in all formats of international cricket, the longest streak by any batter.
During the second Test of their series against Australia, Babar started with a 196. He then backed that up with 66 and 55 in the third and final Tests, respectively.
Babar scored 57 in the first ODI against Australia before hitting two centuries — 114 and an unbeaten 105 — in the second and third ODIs, respectively.
And the right-hander started the series with another century, this time a 107-ball 103 in the first ODI against the West Indies in Multan, before scoring 77 in the second ODI.
Babar seemed set to reach a century against the Windies in the second game, but mistimed an Akeal Hosein and gave a return catch to the left-arm spinner in the 36th over of the game, which Pakistan won by 120 runs to take the series 2-0 with one game remaining.
After Sri Lanka icon Kumar Sangakkara, who completed the record in the 2015 World Cup, Babar could have become only the second batter in history to register four consecutive tons with a century.
However, Babar would not be too unhappy if he did not match Sangakkara's achievements, as the current number one batter in ODIs and T20Is did overcome India's Virat Kohli to become the first skipper to hit 1000 runs.
Babar became the fastest skipper in history to amass 1000 runs in 13 games as captain of Pakistan. Former India captain Virat Kohli previously held the record for reaching the milestone score in 17 matches as leader.
