Babar, Haris star as Pakistan beat NZ in 2nd T20

LAHORE: Pakistan took a 2-0 lead in a five-match series after they whipped New Zealand by 38 runs in the second T20I here at the Gaddafi Stadium on Saturday night.

All format Captain Babar Azam smacked a century to lift Pakistan total to 192 for four and then the home team bowlers led by Haris Rauf allowed New Zealand get 154 for seven in the given quota of overs.

The third game of the series will be played at the same venue on April 17 (Monday) and then the teams will travel to Rawalpindi to play the remaining two matches of the T20 series.

Babar Azam and his charges after mid-over follies hammered New Zealand for even better score from the opening game. Babar was at his best in hitting today. After Chris Gayle, Babar became the second in the list of most centuries in T20 cricket. Gayle has hit 22 centuries in 455 innings while Babar thumped his nine in 247 innings. He becomes the first captain ever to score three T20I hundreds and he has proved a point that he can up the bar at death and switch gears. He was at 65 at 17.1 overs and then ended up with 101 not out.

Babar Azam also levelled the world record for most T20 International wins as skipper on Saturday, as he won 42nd match as captain.

In reply, New Zealand was kept silent for most of the overs. pley in place of Adam Milne and Ish Sodhi.