Babar Azam Becomes Fastest Batter to 5000 ODI Runs
On Friday, Pakistan all-format captain Babar Azam broke another world record by becoming the fastest batsman to score 5000 ODI runs in during the ongoing PAK vs NZ ODI series 2023.
Babar surpassed the legendary South African batsman Hashim Amla to attain the milestone in the fewest number of innings. The 28-year-old accumulated 5000 ODI runs in 97 innings, four innings fewer than the previous record held by Amla.
𝐀𝐧𝐨𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐫 𝐫𝐞𝐜𝐨𝐫𝐝 𝐚𝐜𝐡𝐢𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐝 🤩@babarazam258 becomes the fastest batter to 5️⃣,0️⃣0️⃣0️⃣ ODI runs 👏#PAKvNZ | #CricketMubarak pic.twitter.com/5Yas7066lp
— Pakistan Cricket (@TheRealPCB) May 5, 2023
Meanwhile, he passed legends such as Sir Vivian Richards of the West Indies and Virat Kohli of India, who both required 114 innings to reach the milestone. Notable here is that the top-ranked ODI batsman was the second-fastest to reach 4,000 runs in ODI cricket.
When he reached 80 innings in the first ODI against Australia in Lahore last year, he fell one short of Hashim Amla’s 81 innings. Babar scored his subsequent 1000 runs in only 15 innings in order to surpass Amla this time.
Tom Latham, captain of New Zealand, elected to bowl first after winning the toss of the coin. In response, Pakistan amassed an enormous score on the back of a magnificent century by their captain, Babar Azam.
Babar blasted ten boundaries en route to Pakistan’s highest score of 107 off 117 deliveries. Salman Ali Agha, who scored his second fifty in the format, was the other notable run-scorer for the home team. Agha scored 58 runs in 46 deliveries with the assistance of four boundaries and two sixes.
Despite Latham’s spectacular half-century, the objective set by the green shirts proved to be too much for New Zealand, who suffered their fourth consecutive loss in the ongoing five-match series.
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