Babar Azam sets numerous Test match batting records

KARACHI: Babar Azam, the captain of Pakistan’s cricket team for the Test series against Australia, created several 4th-inning batting records by scoring a fighting 196 on the final day of the Karachi Test against Australia.

The Pakistani skipper played 425 deliveries and stayed on the wicket for 607 minutes, creating new records for Pakistan in Test cricket.

Babar became the first-ever Asian player to stay for more than 10 hours in the 4th innings of a Test match. He fell only 36 minutes short of former England cricketer team captain Mike Atherton’s world record of the longest individual innings in the 4th innings of a Test.

His innings of 196 are the highest 4th innings individual score by any captain in the history of Test Cricket.

Babar surpassed Atherton who scored an unbeaten 185 against South Africa at Johannesburg in 1995. This is also Pakistan’s highest 4th innings individual score. The previous highest record was held by Younis Khan who had scored 171 against Sri Lanka at Pallekele in 2015.

Babar also joined the company of Mike Atherton (492), Herbert Sutcliffe (462) and Sunil Gavaskar (443) to become the only 4th bowler to play 400+ deliveries in 4th innings of a Test match.

He earlier surpassed Shoaib Malik (369) in playing most deliveries by a Pakistani in the 4th innings of a Test. Malik’s record of 488 minutes batting against Sri Lanka in 2006 was also broken by Babar in this innings.

His innings of 196 are also the highest by any player in the 4th innings of a Test match against Australia, the previous best by any player in the 4th innings of Test against Australia was 192 by Sri Lanka’s Kumar Sangakkara.

Earlier, Babar, along with his partner Abdullah Shafiq, created the record of most partnership balls by a pair in the 4th innings of a Test.

They played 520 balls to score 228 runs for the third wicket to surpass India’s Deep Dasgupta and Rahul Dravid who had played 500 deliveries as batting partners in the 4th innings of Test against South Africa in 2001.

Pakistan’s innings in Karachi is also its longest 4th inning in Test matches against any opponent. The previous longest was 145 overs against Australia in 2016, at Brisbane. This is also the first time when Australia bowled more than 160 overs in the 4th innings of a Test match against any opponent.

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