'Master craftsman' - Twitter hails Babar Azam for his excellent century in Galle Test
Babar Azam scored his seventh Test century.
Pakistan skipper Babar Azam showed a great amount of determination as the one-man army of his side on the second day of the first Test match against Sri Lanka at the Galle International Stadium. While Sri Lanka were cleaning up the Pakistani tail, Babar held on firmly from the other end and counter-attacked the bowlers to ensure that the visitors did not fall short of their first innings deficit despite being so close.
Even tail-ender Naseem Shah gave good support to his captain as he did not allow the Sri Lankan bowlers to breach his defence and just kept on blocking and leaving the deliveries without even trying to get off the mark when on strike. The support proved to be instrumental in Babar completing his well-deserved 7th Test century and keeping Pakistan’s first innings hopes alive.
Babar Azam scores a fighting century
When Hasan Ali got out in the 60th over, Pakistan’s scorecard read 148/9 and they were still trailing by 74 runs with only Naseem Shah left. It was a daunting task for Babar Azam to take care of things. Nonetheless, the batting superstar accepted the challenge and tackled the Lankan bowlers with fearless intent.
He was a bit defensive initially but didn’t waste any scoring opportunities and kept the scoreboard ticket from thereon, once he reached 80. While he was on 90, Azam played an inside-out shot off Prabath Jayasuriya which fetched him four valuable runs. It was a risky shot that was well rewarded in the end.
The Pakistan captain took a single and remained unbeaten on 95 while heading into the tea break. It was indeed an eventful day for Babar Azam who shattered yet another unique record earlier in the day. He surpassed the batting megastar Virat Kohli to become the fastest Asian batter to score 10000 international runs. While it took Kohli 232 innings to achieve this feat, Babar got it done in just 228.
When play resumed post tea, an attacking field was placed for Babar Azam with spinner Maheesh Theekshana bowling. However, Azam was street smart on this occasion as he first smashed Theekshana between long on and deep mid-wicket for four runs before taking a single of the very next delivery to complete his century.
Here’s how Twitterati reacted to Babar Azam’s splendid ton:
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