Babar Azam’s century fires Pakistan to 10-wicket T20 win against England

On Tuesday night, the Karachi crowd were so loud that Alex Hales described it as one of the best atmospheres in world cricket. But that paled in comparison to how the National Stadium felt and sounded two days later, when Pakistan won a famous victory by 10 wickets after chasing down England’s sizeable 199 with three balls to spare. There’s been a lot of talk in the Pakistani media about the weakness of the team’s middle order. Truth is, it doesn’t much matter how the rest of them bat when you have two openers who can play the way Mohammad Rizwan and Babar Azam did here.

No one left early this time, not with two of the best T20 batsmen in the world (Rizwan is currently No 1, Azam No 3 in the ICC rankings) going like this. It ended up being by far the biggest total ever chased down in a 10-wicket victory in the history of international T20 cricket. By the time Moeen Ali, who must have desperately regretted his decision to bat first, brought himself on to bowl the 13th over and ended up conceding 21 runs, England seemed to be pretty much flat out of ideas about how to get them out.

They had swapped in Liam Dawson for Richard Gleeson, which meant they had three spinners and three left-arm seamers. Between them, they created three chances. Their fielding cost them every one. Rizwan was dropped once on 23, by Hales off Liam Dawson, and again by Ali on 83. He also survived a stumping chance off Adil Rashid on 32. These were the only blemishes. Azam’s innings was immaculate. His hundred came off 62 balls, and was full of vicious cuts and wicked pulls; he finished on an unbeaten 110. Rizwan finished on 88 off 51.

England’s total felt formidable. It was built around an opening stand of 42 between Hales and Phil Salt, an inventive