Pakistan rode on Fakhar Zaman's lightning century to get the better of New Zealand by 21 runs in their crunch World Cup clash at the M Chinnaswamy stadium on Saturday, November 4, to keep their semifinals hopes alive.
Pakistan had a task cut out to chase down the mammoth total of 401/6. But Fakhar made his intentions clear from the word go and started belting the Kiwi bowlers left, right and centre. He cracked a stunning 126 off 81 riding on 11 sixes and eight fours to ensure Pakistan stay ahead of New Zealand when rain god brought DLS into the picture. After multiple pause in the game, Paksitan were handed a revised target of 342 runs in 41 overs. Rain returned to halt the game again when Pakistan's scoreboard read 200/1 after 25.3 overs. Since rain didn't stop, Pakistan were declared the winners of the match as they were 21 runs ahead of the Kiwis as per DLS method.
Meanwhile, in the post match presentation Pakistan captain Babar was all praise for his match-hero Fakhar. He also revealed the dressing room chat he had with Fakhar which helped Pakistan stay strong in the monumental chase and ultimately win the match.
“When we started batting, we believed (in ourselves). Inside dressing room, we passed the message that we need one good partnership. Back of the mind, we knew rain was coming, but didn't expect it to be too much. To be honest, we just planned to build a partnership. I wanted to give strike to Fakhar; we knew we had short boundaries and we tried to utilise it. We were trying to give 100 % but in some matches we were not up to the mark. If we win our next match, let's see...we will try to play positively and we are going match by match,” Babar said following Pakistan's emphatic win.
Notably, Babar too chipped in with a brilliant 66 off 63 and stitched together a match-winning 194-run partnership.
Riding on this win Pakistan surged to no.5 in the points table with eight points in as many games with a NRR of +0.036. Meanwhile, New Zealand recorded their fourth consecutive to sit fourth in the standings. Notably Kiwis and Pakistan share the same eight points in as many games but since New Zealand have the superior NRR (+0.398) they edged the Men in Green.
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