After the victory over Ireland, Babar Azam surpassed Uganda’s Brian Masaba (44 victories) to become the most successful skipper in T20I history with 45 wins. Since taking over as captain in 2019, Azam has guided Pakistan in 78 games.
In the interim, Shaheen Afridi reached the noteworthy landmark of 300 wickets in international cricket. During the second Twenty20 International, Ireland skipper Paul Stirling became his 300th wicket.
The 24-year-old is also the fifth-youngest bowler to reach the mark.
Since making his international debut in 2018, he has played in 145 matches across all formats for Pakistan. In Test cricket, he claimed 113 wickets, while in ODI and T20I, he claimed 104 and 84 wickets respectively.
Interestingly, in the second Twenty20 International, Pakistan chose to bowl first, and in the fourth over, Afridi dismissed both of Ireland’s openers, bringing the score down to 34-2.
Nonetheless, Ireland reached 193 in their allotted 20 overs thanks to an outstanding 51 runs from 34 balls by Lorcan Tucker, which included five boundaries and two sixes. Gareth Delany also hit a rapid 28 off 10 balls.
Thanks to the half-centuries of Fakkhar Zaman and Muhammad Rizwan, Pakistan was able to successfully chase the 194-run mark with 19 balls remaining.
After early wickets from Babar Azam (0) and Saim Ayub (6), they put up a 140-run partnership in 78 balls to turn the tide of the match in Pakistan’s favour.
With an undefeated 75 off 46 balls that included six boundaries and four sixes, Rizwan top-scored for Pakistan, while Zaman was removed after making 78 runs off of 40 balls.
Another important contributor was Azam Khan, who scored an undefeated 30 off 10 with four sixes. In the seventeenth over, he blasted three sixes off Mark Adair to end the match in spectacular fashion.
Pakistan and Ireland will play their third and final Twenty20 International tomorrow, May 14.
