Pakistan recovered from a stunning defeat to draw parity in the ongoing three-match series with Ireland with opener Mohammad Rizwan (75*) and Fakhar Zaman (78) playing starring roles with the bat in Dublin on Sunday.
Ireland took a shock 1-0 lead in the series with a five-wicket win in the opening clash before Pakistan bounced back with a thumping seven-wicket triumph, chasing down 194 in 16.5 overs.
Rizwan won player-of-the-match award for his effort and when reminded that along with Virat Kohli, he’s the only other batter from a Test playing nation to average over 50 in T20Is, the Pakistan wicketkeeper-batter expressed his admiration for the Indian batting superstar.
“Virat Kohli is a good player and we learnt a lot from him. I respect him,” Rizwan said.
Kohli has scored 4037 runs from 117 T20Is at an average of 51.75 while Rizwan averages 50.38 after having scored 3124 runs from 95 T20Is.
“I don’t look at my numbers, if you look at the average, you are an average player. If you look at the match situation and the conditions then it’s better,” Rizwan said.
Rizwan also praised Ireland for giving Pakistan a tough fight.
“If you look at the whole match, they (Ireland) played really well. So have to credit them guys. Chasing 194 is not easy as Ireland know the conditions and they gave difficult time early on but we decide to attack and this is why we were successful,” he said.
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Pakistan skipper Babar Azam was a relieved man following the positive result as the former champions continue to fine-tune their preparations for the upcoming ICC Men’s T20 World Cup.
“It’s a relief to be honest,” Babar said. “All the credit to the batsmen for the way they are playing. At the innings break, we decided to chase in 18-19 overs. (But) in the first 6 overs we lost two (wickets) but Rizwan and Fakhar built the momentum.”
The third and final T20I will be played on Tuesday at the same venue.
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