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'He Has Hunger to Play...,' Babar Azam Impressed by Young Pakistani Batter's Determination

image-lnklj39fAbdullah Shafique (Source: AP Photo)

Chasing 345 for victory, Pakistan reached the total comfortably in the end against Sri Lanka and achieved the world record for highest successful chase in World Cup history, thanks to scintillating efforts from Mohammad Rizwan and youngster Abdullah Shafique, who notched up their respective centuries. This win takes Pakistan to second position in the points table with two wins in two games in World Cup 2023.

The Green Nation were in trouble early on when they lost two quick wickets with the score just being 37, but after that, Shafique and Rizwan stitched a 176-run partnership for the third wicket to ease the chase as they won by six wickets.

Shafique was quite instrumental in providing an excellent start as he ended up smashing 113 with ten fours and three sixes, whereas the senior pro did his finishing job wonderfully, scoring 131 not out with three maximums and eight boundaries.

After the game, skipper Babar Azam lauded both the batters for their effort alongside mentioning Sri Lankan batter Kusal Mendis for his solid 122, giving them a tough competition.

"All credit to the boys, especially Abdullah and Rizwan, the way they built the partnership and put pressure on Sri Lanka. We weren't up to the mark in the first 20-30 overs. All credit to Mendis, he played an outstanding knock. We finished well, all credit to the bowlers,"

Praising Shafique, Azam was quite happy with how the 23-year-old showed up on the big night playing his first World Cup game. The captain mentioned that he saw Abdullah play in the nets and was impressed with his hunger to score runs. Also, Babar thanked fans in Hyderabad for supporting them for the last ten days.

"Very happy with the way he's playing. This is his first World Cup. He has hunger to play, I saw him in the nets so I decided to play him. The way Rizwan and Abdullah built the partnership, they helped us. We believed and built partnerships. Thank you so much for supporting us throughout the one and a half weeks."

Pakistan's victory have given them a great start in the tournament, and they will now go and play against their arch-rivals India on 14th October in Ahmedabad.