‘With Fakhar there, we could’ve chased 450’: Babar Azam

Babar Azam

Pakistan captain Babar Azam said he believed that as long as left-handed opener Fakhar Zaman was batting, his side could have chased 450 in their match against New Zealand at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium on Saturday.

"In the back of my mind, the view was as long as Fakhar was there, we could even have chased 450. When he plays innings like these, we win 90% of those matches. After he told me that the pitch was good to play on, we decided on building a partnership and taking the game deep, at least till the 20 overs," said Babar in a video posted by the Pakistan Cricket Board.

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Originally set a chase of 402, Fakhar and Babar shared an unbeaten 194-run partnership, before rain came in. Zaman smashed an unbeaten 126 in just 81 deliveries as Pakistan posted 200-1 in just 25.3 overs before rain stopped play, giving Pakistan a 21-run win via DLS method.

"We didn't have rain in our mind at all, as the skies were clear. But the clouds came suddenly, and then we started to calculate the DLS and we wanted to stay with it throughout. Fakhar was utilising the short boundary while I held one end up and we made sure we didn't let the run rate get out of control."

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