To bat like Babar... ©Getty
Funny things, century stands in T20Is. Sometimes they set teams up for massive totals. Other times those sides end up with mediocre lumps of runs, either because the big partnership comes too late or because they lose their way once the pyrotechnic pair are pried apart.
South Africa know this only too well. Before Wednesday, two of their batters had shared 100 or more runs in 16 T20Is. They had lost four, each time when they batted first. Pakistan had had 18 hundred partnerships, and lost two of those games - most recently in Cardiff in May 2019, when England won by seven runs even though Haris Sohail and Babar Azam had added 103 for the third wicket in a total of 173/6. The last time that fate befell South Africa was at Newlands in December 2020, when the bothersome English won by nine wickets despite Faf du Plessis and Rassie van Dussen putting on 127 after South Africa had stumbled to 64/3. So something had to give at Centurion on Wednesday.
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