Pakistani opening duo Babar Azam and Mohammad Rizwan have consistently churned out runs for the side over the years. The pairing has made a habit of breaking the opening record repeatedly, and on Thursday the duo broke one more such record. They have passed Virat Kohli and Chris Gayle’s record for Royal Challengers Bengaluru of having the most 50-run opening partnerships.
Against England Babar and Rizwan have put on a 59-run stand at the Oval. With that, they have crossed 50 runs for the first wicket 24 times as a pairing going past the Kohli-Gayle record who have done the feat 23 times. In addition to that Babar has become the first Pakistani player to go past the 4000 run-mark and is only behind Kohli in most runs scored in T20Is.
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England win series 2-0
England will head into the defense of its T20 World Cup title on the back of a 2-0 series victory over Pakistan after coasting to a seven-wicket win in their fourth and final match.
After restricting Pakistan to 157 all out, England powered to its target with 27 balls remaining largely thanks to Phil Salt’s 45 and captain Jos Buttler’s 39 in their opening stand of 82 off 38 balls.
Harry Brook (17 not out) saw England home with a six, with Jonny Bairstow in the middle with him on 28 off 16.
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Two of the matches in the series were washed out, denting the World Cup preparations of both teams. There were showers around for the series finale in London too, but England and Pakistan played through them — save for 20 minutes during the Pakistan innings when players went off the field.
The tournament staged jointly in the United States and the Caribbean starts Saturday, with England’s opening match against Scotland in Barbados on Tuesday and Pakistan playing for the first time on June 6 against the U.S.
On this evidence, it will be England fighting for the title and not Pakistan.
Babar-Rizwan on left and Gayle-Kohli on right. (FILE) 
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