Monitoring Desk
COLOMBO: Babar Azam turns out to be second in world to score 10 T20 hundreds.
The skipper joined legendary Chris Gayle to clinch this title during Colombo Strikers 7-wicket against Galle Titans in the Lanka Premier League (LPL) 2023.
Babar smashed 104 off 59 balls to reach the landmark, helping Colombo Strikers chase down 189 in 19.5 overs at the Pallekele International Cricket Stadium. His knock included 5 sixes and 8 fours.
With that knock, the Pakistan skipper also took his tally to 211 runs in 4 innings so far in the LPL 2023 and becomes the leading the run-scorer this season, having also scored a fifty in an earlier match. This was also Babar’s first hundred in LPL and the first hundred of the ongoing season. The 28-year-old’s previous hundreds came in international level, the Vitality Blast, National T20 Cup and the Pakistan Super League. He scored his first hundred in Pakistan’s tour match against Leicestershire in 2019.
The Pakistan skipper has scored three hundreds at the international level, two against New Zealand and one against England, while he has smashed two each in the Vitality Blast and National T20 Cup, for Somerset and Central Punjab, respectively.
The right-handed batter also scored a hundred for Peshawar Zalmi in the Pakistan Super League (PSL) earlier this year. His latest century, took his tally of T20 centuries to 10. Only West Indies great Gayle has more T20 hundreds than Babar with 22 hundreds in 463 matches. Babar has 10 hundreds in 264 T20 matches. India’s Virat Kohli, former Australia captain Aaron Finch and his opening partner David Warner as well as another Australian Michael Klinger follow the Pakistani batter in the list with 8 hundreds each. Here is a look at the top 10 for most T20 hundreds.
Babar’s hundred was also only the fourth in Lanka Premier League history with Laurie Evans, Avishka Fernando and Andre Fletcher being the only other players to reach the three-figure mark. Here is a look at the LPL hundreds.
