Imam, Babar Create Records but Pakistan Ends Up Losing | PAKvAUS:
Imam-ul-Haq and Babar Azam created records in the first ODI between Pakistan and Australia, but still Pakistan ended up on the losing side. Pakistan were on the receiving end first against Travis Head, and then Adam Zampa ripped through their batting lineup during the chase. The fault was majorly of their bowling, but still Pakistan controlled the scoring rate of Australia at the end and avoided disaster.Early loss of Fakhar Zaman, and failures of Iftikhar Ahmed, Saud Shakeel and Khushdil Shah with the bat cost them the game.
During this game, Babar Azam complete 4000 ODI runs. He became the 2nd Fastest batsman to score 4000 ODI runs. Babar Azam became the 15th Pakistani Batsman to score 4000 or more ODI runs. Overall in his career, the Pakistani skipper has scored over 9000 runs in International Cricket.
Apart from Babar Azam, Imam-ul-Haq also had a memorable outing. Imam smashed his 8th ODI hundred in the first ODI against Australia. Imam-ul-Haq now holds the record for the joint second most number of centuries scored by a Pakistani opener in ODI Cricket. The list includes some legendary names; Saeed Anwar 20, Ramiz Raja 8, Salman Butt 8 and Imam-ul-Haq 8. Imam-ul-Haq also complete 10 International Centuries for Pakistan.
The game didn’t end in Pakistan’s favor, but still there were some positives for the Men in Green and they can fix the loopholes and come back strongly in the next ODI.Pakistan also slipped to the 7th spot in ODI rankings after this defeat and they need to fix the issues quickly with their lineup otherwise things could be worsened as these 3 ODI matches are part of the ODI Super League for World Cup 2023. The 2nd ODI will be played at the same venue on 31st March 2022.
