Babar Azan led Pakistan in their match against New Zealand at Edgbaston for a 6-wicket win as they now turn up the heat on England while boosting their own hopes to reach the World Cup semifinals.
The 24 years old Azam scored 101 runs off of 127 balls in his splendid innings where he st4ruck 11 fours and shared a 126-run partnership with Harris Sohail for the 4th-wicket. They managed to reach the chase target with 5 balls to spare.
Earlier in the match, Shaheen Afridi was the one who set the clear tone for Pakistan with his bowling as the 19 years old newcomer of the team ousted Colin Munro who scored 12 runs, Ross Taylor who scored 3 runs and Tom Latham who scored 1 run to get 3 wickets while giving away meager 9 runs in his five-over deliveries.
With Shaheen Afridi getting three wickets, the Black hats were own by 46-4 in the powerplay.
New Zealand sighed a breath of relief after Jimmy Neesham scored 97 runs and Colin de Grandhomme scored 64 runs to share the 132 runs 6th-wicket partnership. Latter managed to strike a splendid six at the end of the innings to set a chase target for Pakistan at 238 runs; a target which was surely an easy one to chase.
With this win, Pakistan is now one point behind the hosts of this World Cup; England for the fourth place which is also the final place on the semi-final. For Pakistan, they have next matches against Bangladesh and Afghanistan.
As for the English team, they have faced tough opponents in their last matches of the tournament and now they will face India on Sunday at Edgbaston and alter will play against New Zealand on Wednesday in Durham.
Babar Azam, in this match, managed to reach the milestone of scoring 3000 ODI runs which is the second fastest for achieving this mark in 68 innings. The first one was Hashim Amla. Babar was also able to score his 50 off of 65 balls before he made his 10th ODI century.
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