With the help of captain Babar Azam’s century, Pakistan defeated New Zealand by 102 runs in the fourth one-day international cricket match, taking a strong step towards clean sweep and also achieved the number one ranking in ODIs.
Babar scored 107 runs in 117 balls, which is his 18th century in ODIs. Thanks to his innings, Pakistan scored 334 runs for six wickets while batting first.
In response, New Zealand was dismissed for 232 runs. This is New Zealand’s lowest score in the series. With this win, Pakistan took a 4-0 lead in the five-match series. He has reached the top of the ICC ODI rankings. The fifth and last ODI will be played on Sunday.
Babar said after the match, “The credit for becoming the number one team in the world goes to the entire team and the support staff.” Pakistan’s score was 128 for three in the 25th over. After this, Babar and Agha Salman (58) shared a 117-run partnership for the fourth wicket.
Shaheen Shah Afridi (23 not out) and Mohammad Haris (17 not out) collected 38 runs in the last two overs. Due to this, Pakistan was able to score a strong score. For New Zealand, Matt Henry took three wickets for 65 runs. Babar was dismissed by Ben Lister, playing his first ODI match, which was also his first wicket in ODIs. During his innings, Babar also completed 5000 runs in ODIs.
He achieved this feat in 97 innings, breaking the record held by Hashim Amla of South Africa, who achieved the feat in 101 innings.
Chasing a big target, New Zealand’s score was also 129 for three after 26 overs. Captain Tom Latham scored the highest 60 runs from his side while Mark Chapman contributed 46 runs.
New Zealand lost their last seven wickets in 48 runs. For Pakistan, leg-spinner Usman Mir took four wickets for 43 runs and Mohammad Wasim took three wickets for 40 runs.
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