Almost a week after ending his runs drought by scoring a half-century while playing against South Africa on DAY 3 of the first Test at Centurion, Pakistan's former skipper Babar Azam on Sunday scored another half-century in the second Test in 73 balls.
Azam's half-century came as Pakistan chased 616 runs put up by South Africa at Cape Town's Newlands. At the end of Day 3, Babar was out for 81 runs in 124 deliveries.
Not only this, Azam (62*) stitched a partnership of over 205-run partnership with skipper Shan Masood, who was not out at 102 runs off 166 deliveries.
Pakistan's first innings was over in just 194 runs.
Earlier, Pakistan lost the Centurion Test against South Africa by 2 wickets, helping the Proteas to become the first team to qualify for the World Test Championships 2025 finals.
Before Babar's previous half-century at Centurion that came after a gap of 733 days, the former Pakistan star batter hit a half-century in Test cricket in December 2022. Since then, he has struggled to score runs for his team.
According to The Times of India, Babar Azam's last half-century came against New Zealand in Karachi, and it took him 19 consecutive innings without reaching fifty.
Even his highest recently--41 runs off 79 deliveries-- came against Australia in Melbourne in 2023.
Babar Azam, who has nine international centuries to in Tests, has not scored a century since 2022, when New Zealand toured Pakistan.
Looking at Babar's stats, Babar Azam made his Test debut in 2016 and scored a total of 4051 runs at an average of 43.55. His highest score till date is 196.
In the second Test match at Cape Town's Newlands, South Africa's Ryan Rickelton became the first South Africa batter to score a Test double ton in nine years.
The Proteas left-handed batter reached the milestone off 266 balls. Hashim Amla's double ton was in 2016.
Though opening with Aiden Markram, Rickelton made a fourth-wicket partnership of 235 runs with skipper Temba Bavuma for South Africa. Following this, Bavuma – who also scored a century (106 off 179 deliveries) was dismissed by Salman Agha. SA scored 615 runs in 141.3 overs.
Chasing the mammoth target, Pakistan could score just 194 runs in the first innings.
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