Babar, Malik take Pakistan to a monstrous total of 189 against Scotland
Shoaib Malik's 18-ball 54 blitzkrieg takes the limelight
In the last couple of months, only few teams managed to cross the 180 mark and the mantra has been pretty simple and straightfoward.
Play percentage cricket in the first 10 overs, and in the next 10 - target your areas/bowlers and use the ground dimensions to nail the big hits.
Afghanistan, South Africa, England and now Pakistan.... Though Shoaib Malik's 18-ball 54 blitzkrieg takes the limelight, the platform was set up by the ever-reliable Babar Azam, who compiled his 4th fifty of the tournament, and Mohammad Hafeez who provided the much-needed hitting momentum after the half-way mark.
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This will take some recovery from Scotland if they are to hunt this down.
Remember, South Africa posted a similar score last night and England nearly chased it down. Can we see something similar?
Fastest 50s for Pakistan in T20Is (balls):
18 Shoaib Malik v Sco Sharjah 2021
21 Umar Akmal v Aus Edgbaston 2010
22 Umar Akmal v NZ Hamilton 2016
Fastest 50s in T20 World Cups (balls):
12 Yuvraj Singh v Eng Durban 2007
17 Stephan Myburgh v Ire Sylhet 2014
18 Glenn Maxwell v Pak Mirpur 2014
18 KL Rahul v Sco Dubai 2021
18 Shoaib Malik v Sco Sharjah 2021
Shoaib Malik vs Scotland in T20Is:
11(13) Durban 2007
53(27) Edinburgh 2018
49*(22) Edinburgh 2018
54*(18) Sharjah 2021
Mohammad Hafeez: Definitely we wanted to get 175 on this pitch. Nicely paced by Malik. You need to go there and see how the ball is coming. We know Sharjah is low and skiddy but in my innings I wanted to play my shots and wanted to play straight because we needed momentum. And that was carried forward by Babar and Malik. We do consider the conditions and adapt accordingly.
