PAK vs NZ Warm-up Game: Shot of the Day - Babar Azam creams Jimmy Neesham through covers

The ICC Cricket World Cup 2023 finally got underway on Friday, September 29 as the first set of warm-up matches were played for the tournament. Pakistan and New Zealand locked horns in the third warm-up game at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium, Hyderabad. Pakistan captain Babar Azam won the toss and elected to bat first. Babar had to make his way out to the middle early in the innings as opener Imam-ul-Haq got dismissed by Matt Henry in just the third over of the innings.

The Pakistan captain wasted no time to unleash his trademark ‘cover drive’ batting for the first time in India. During the third ball of the ninth over bowled by Jimmy Neesham, the right-handed batter threw his bat at a widish delivery and threaded it towards the cover point boundary announcing his arrival in the World Cup.

The 28-year-old went on to play a brilliant innings of 80 (84) with the help of eight fours and two sixes in his innings. During his knock, the Pakistan skipper put his wide array of strokes on display sending the ball to all parts of the ground. The Lahore-born cricketer got involved in a 114-run stand for the third wicket with Mohammad Rizwan off 110 balls and helped stabilize the innings after the early dismissals of the openers.

Mohammad Rizwan scores brilliant hundred

Rizwan also went on to score a magnificent hundred (103 off 94) smashing nine fours and two sixes in his innings. Saud Shakeel (75 off 53) gave the perfect finish to Pakistan’s innings as he clobbered five fours and four maximums during his stay at the crease.

Agha Salman (33* off 23), Shadab Khan (16 off 11) and Iftikhar Ahmed (7* off 3) also played useful cameos to propel Pakistan’s total to 345/5 in their allotted 50 overs. Mitchell Santer was the pick of the bowlers for New Zealand as he registered figures of 2/39 (8 overs) while Matt Henry (1/8, 3 overs), Jimmy Neesham (1/59, 7 overs) and Lockie Ferguson (1/34, 4 overs) were also among the wickets.