T20 World Cup 2021, Match 41: Pakistan vs Scotland, Stats Review: Shoaib Malik’s fiery fifty takes Pakistan home

Another day and another convincing victory for Pakistan! They have made a habit of this. Haven’t they? Scotland are the latest team to go down against the Men in Green as they suffered a humiliating 72-run defeat at the Sharjah Cricket Stadium. With this win, Pakistan ended the league stage of the T20 World Cup 2021 unbeaten. This also means the 2009-edition champions will meet Australia in the semi-final on November 11.

Speaking of how the game panned out, Babar Azam elected to bat first after winning the toss. Contrary to the expectations, Scotland did pretty well with the new ball as the scoring rate was down. However, things turned as the game progressed. Skipper Babar Azam slammed yet another half-century to put the Scottish side on the back foot.

However, the cherry on the cake was added by old warhorse Shoaib Malik who slammed an 18-ball fifty. Riding on his brilliance, Pakistan posted 189/4 in their allotted 20 overs. Scotland’s chase never went smooth as they lost wickets at regular intervals. Subsequently, they were restricted to  117/6, losing the contest by 72 runs.

Meanwhile, here are the important stats and numbers from Pakistan vs Scotland clash in T20 World Cup 2021:

5 – Pakistan are the only team to win all their five matches in the Super 12 stage of the T20 World Cup 2021.

16 – Pakistan have now won their last 16 T20I games on UAE soil.

18 – Shoaib Malik slammed the fastest half-century by a Pakistan batter in T20Is, 18.

6 – Malik slammed six maximums during the course of his fiery half-century. Only Martin Guptill has smashed more sixes (7) in a match in T20 World Cup 2021.

3 – Malik also recorded the joint-third fastest half-century by any batters in T20 World Cups. He shares the record with Glenn Maxwell and KL Rahul.

3 – Babar Azam became the third player to record four 50-plus scores in a single edition of the T20 World Cup. Mathew Hayden and Virat Kohli are the other two with the feat.

9 – Azam registered his ninth fifty-plus score in T20Is in 2021. Only Mohammad Rizwan (10) is ahead of him on this list.

2,500 – Mohammad Hafeez became the first Pakistani and sixth player overall to complete 2,500 runs in T20I cricket.

15 – Babar Azam now has 15 fifty-plus scores in T20Is as captain, most for any player. Virat Kohli (13) holds the second place.

1680 – Mohammad Rizwan now has 1680 T20 runs in 2021, most by any batter in a calendar year. He went past Chris Gayle’s tally of 1665 runs.

50 – Haris Rauf completed 50 wickets in international cricket – 36 in T20Is, 14 in ODIs.