'Absolutely love this guy' - Marizanne Kapp in awe of Mohammad Rizwan's classy ton against South Africa in first T20I

The opening wicketkeeper-batsman Mohammad Rizwan had presented a stunning show in the first T20 of the three-match series against South Africa at Gaddafi Stadium in Lahore on Thursday, February 11. Rizwan was the wrecker-in-chief for the hosts as he single-handedly won them the game and scripted history by slamming 104 runs off 64 deliveries.

On Thursday, Rizwan became only the second wicket-keeper batsman after former New Zealand cricketer Brendon McCullum to hit a ton in all three formats of the game. He also etched his name as the second Pakistan batsman to register a 100+ score in the shortest format of the game  after Ahmed Shehzad, who had scored 111 runs against Bangladesh in March 2014.

With his sublime knock against the Proteas, the 28-year-old managed to impress the veteran South Africa’s woman cricketer Marizanne Kapp. The all-rounder is one of the mainstays of South Africa women’s team line-up and holds the record for the highest-ever score by a South African at women’s World Cups (102*) against Pakistan at Cuttack in 2013. She is also the first cricketer for South Africa to take a hat-trick in a Women’s Twenty20 International.

Kapp took to her official Twitter handle to laud Mohammad Rizwan for his exemplary performance in the T20I match against her country’s men’s team.

“Absolutely love this guy @iMRizwanPak, brilliant cricketer,” tweeted Kapp.

Here is Marizanne Kapp’s tweet for Mohammad Rizwan

Absolutely love this guy @iMRizwanPak , brilliant cricketer 🙌🏻 https://t.co/58OElvw7Eo

— Marizanne Kapp (@kappie777) February 11, 2021

Pakistan leads the T20I series against South Africa by 1-0

The first T20 international between South Africa and Pakistan had commenced with the visitors winning the toss and electing to bowl first. Put to bat, Pakistan racked up a total of 169 runs on the scoreboard on the back of a scintillating hundred by wicketkeeper-batsman Mohammad Rizwan. Apart from Rizwan, no other batsmen took the responsibility of scoring runs.

For South Africa, Andile Phehlukwayo was the pick of the bowler with two wickets under his belt while Bjorn Fortuin, Lutho Sipamla and Tabraiz Shamsi scalped one wicket each.

Chasing 170 runs, the visiting team took the match to the last ball as the opening duo of Janneman Malan and Reeza Hendricks scored 44 and 54 runs respectively. Dwaine Pretorius and Fortuin also added 15 off 6 and 17 off 9 runs to the scoreboard. However, at the end Pakistan managed to clinch the game by 3 runs.