Babar Azam, who along with Iftikhar Ahmed, stayed on the crease after fall of the wickets and pushed his side to a strong position in the maiden match of Asia Cup at Multan stadium.
MULTAN: (UrduPoint/Pakistan Point News-August 30th, 2023) Pakistan skipper Babar Azam scored 100 against 109 balls in the opening match of Asia Cup 2023 against Nepal.
Babar Azam stayed long on the crease after fall of the wickets in the initial stage while Iftikhar Ahmed also stayed there. The Nepalese’ bowling attack gave really tough time to the Pakistani players. However, the visitors were weak in the field side.
19th ODI hundred for #King Babar as he became the fastest Batsman to achieve this landmark in terms of innings.
Fastest to 19 ODI Centuries (innings)
102 BABAR AZAM*
104 Hashim Amla
124 Virat Kohli
139 David Warner
171 AB de Villiers
181 – Rohit Sharma
It may be mentioned here that Pakistan, in the 43rd over of the match, scored 237 for four after winning the toss and opting to bat first against Nepalese.
Nepal are making their Asia Cup debut and their captain Rohit Paudel said it was "a big achievement" for the team. They reached here by winning the ten-team ACC Premier Cup in April-May, clinching the title ahead of teams such as UAE and Hong Kong, who have both played in the Asia Cup before.
This is also the first time Nepal are facing Pakistan in any format in international cricket.
Pakistan: 1 Fakhar Zaman, 2 Imam-ul-Haq, 3 Babar Azam (capt), 4 Mohammad Rizwan (wk), 5 Agha Salman, 6 Iftikhar Ahmed, 7 Shadab Khan, 8 Mohammad Nawaz, 9 Shaheen Shah Afridi, 10 Naseem Shah, 11 Haris Rauf
Nepal: 1 Kushal Bhurtel, 2 Aasif Sheikh (wk), 3 Rohit Paudel (capt), 4 Aarif Sheikh, 5 Kushal Malla, 6 Dipendra Singh Airee, 7 Gulsan Jha, 8 Sompal Kami, 9 Karan KC, 10 Sandeep Lamichhane, 11 Lalit Rajbanshi
