Dec 17, 2021: Pakistan cricket’s opening pair of Babar Azam and Mohammad Rizwan added more laurels to their records on Thursday with a stellar performance against the West Indies in the third T20I, breaking the records of a batting partnership and as individual batsmen.

Babar Azam scored 79 off 53 balls and Mohammad Rizwan scored 87 off 45 balls and scored 158 for the first wicket partnership. The opening stand of 158 was the 6th century stand between the pair – the highest of any batting partnership in T20Is. They surpassed Indian batting partners Rohit Sharma and KL Rahul who have 5th centuries – the duo shared 27 innings together.

3 of these 6 century stands came when batting second. No other pair has such a record while chasing a target. During the 87th innings, Mohammad Rizwan also became the first cricketer to score a total of 2000 T20 runs in a calendar year. He had earlier surpassed West Indies’ Chris Gayle in the list of highest T20I scorers in a calendar year. He ended the year with 2,036 runs, scoring 18 half-centuries and one century in T20 cricket this year. Out of a total of 2,036 T20 runs, 1,326 runs were scored in T20Is, the highest by any cricketer in a calendar year.

During the innings, Rizwan smashed three sixes, taking his total T20I 6s tally in 2021 to 42. He set a new record of most sixes in a calendar year, surpassing New Zealand’s Martin Guptill who smashed 41 in the same year.

In addition to this, Rizwan also stormed 119 fours in the year to become the only player to smash over 100 boundaries in a calendar year.

On the other hand, captain Babar Azam also smashed a half-century today and became the first player to achieve 20 scores of 50 or more in overall T20 cricket in a calendar year. Babar’s tally also includes three scores in double figures. He finished the year 2021 with 939 runs, standing right behind Rizwan in the list of most runs this year and also in the list of most runs in a calendar year.

In todays match, their performance helped Pakistan chase the target of 208 comfortably to register Pakistan’s highest successful chases in T20Is. The score is also the highest ever T20I score at the National Stadium Karachi.

Pakistan cinched the series 3-0.

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