Babar and Rizwan lead Pakistan to big win over England

KARACHI: Babar Azam returned to batting form with a century and Mohammad Rizwan hit 88 in a Pakistan record-breaking double-century opening stand to beat England by 10 wickets in the second Twenty20 on Thursday.

Babar made an unbeaten 110 in his second T20 century off 66 balls as Pakistan reached 203-0 with three balls to spare to level the seven-match series.

Moeen Ali accelerated at the backend of England’s innings with an unbeaten 55 off 23 balls and led the team to 199-5 after he won the toss and elected to bat.

“We planned to play according to the situation, and planned when to charge and when to hold back,” Babar said. “The execution of that plan went brilliantly. When you have a target in front of you, you play according to that and change gears accordingly.”

Babar and Rizwan charged against England with aggressive batting as the visitors couldn’t hold onto their chances to break the stand.

Babar came into Thursday’s game on the back of only 98 runs in his previous seven T20s that included 68 runs in the six Asia Cup matches in the UAE and a knock of 30 in the opening game of the series on Tuesday.

Rizwan profited from two let-offs before he had completed his half century, but Babar belted 11 boundaries and five sixes against both pace and spin.

Babar and Rizwan held the previous record of Pakistan’s 197-run opening wicket stand, which they made against South Africa at Centurion in 2021.

Rizwan also scored a half century in the first match, which England won by six wickets on Tuesday. He was more aggressive in the batting powerplay as Alex Hales dropped him while running backwards at mid-off.

“We batted well, but we dropped a big catch,” Ali said. “Duckett’s partnership with Salty (Phil Salt) was