Pakistan vs World XI, 1st T20I - Live Cricket Score, Commentary

Series: World XI tour of Pakistan, 2017 Venue: Gaddafi Stadium, Lahore Date & Time: Sep 12, 07:00 PM LOCAL

In the end, it turned out to be an easy win for Pakistan © Getty

Good night on that note. We will see you for the next match of the series tomorrow. The country has been so hungry for cricket that there is no breather for the players. Thank you, Pakistan!

Sarfraz: It was an important game. Babar and Shehzad played really well. Shoaib Malik did well towards the end. There's lot of talent in the domestic circuit and I'm sure many youngsters will get their chances in the future

Faf du Plessis: It was a good game and I thought Pakistan played really well. They have great variations in their bowling attack and ours was probably a bit one-dimensional. We got starts, but couldn't kick on.

Babar Azam, Man of the Match

Well deserved. What a day to score runs. There have been talks about how he is the next big thing for Pakistan batting. Finally the home crowd got to see it live what he is actually like.

❤️😍@SAfridiOfficial

Follow this historic match LIVE:…

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Live pictures: World XI cricketers are making their way across the stadium on tuk-tuks. Tahir, Amla, Miller, Bailey, Elliott and Cutting are some of the players doing a lap of honour. There is the ever-smiling Sammy as well.

On March 3, 2009, 12 gunmen launched a deadly attack on the touring Sri Lankan team near the Gaddafi stadium, Lahore, resulting in injuries to Kumar Sangakkara, Mahela Jayawardene, Ajantha Mendis, Thilan Samaraweera and Tharanga Paravitarana. The attack left unimaginable scars on the minds of the Sri Lankan cricketers and Pakistan were [largely] deprived of playing cricket in their homeland due to security reasons.

But there was always hope that that one day thousands of cricket fans across Pakistan could cheer their heroes in stadiums. Hope is a gift that could take you through the tunnel of darkness into light of success. In times of crisis, hope locates itself in the caverns of our mind and echoes as long as we translate it into success.

And for Pakistani fans that everlasting hope of witnessing their cricketing heroes bore fruit when Peshawar Zalmi took on Quetta Gladiators in the PSL final in Lahore this year. A few months later, the Faf du Plessis-led World XI side will take on Pakistan in a T20I series. As du Plessis said: "It's fair to say that this will be the first time when we actually come into play cricket for something which is much bigger than the game itself."

The World XI comprises other fine cricketers like Hashim Amla, Paul Collingwood, Imran Tahir and Tamim Iqbal, while the recently crowned champions of Champions Trophy, Pakistan, will be missing the services of their talisman, Amir. However, Sarfraz Ahmed, Hasan Ali, Fakhar Zaman, Shoaib Malik and Co. still make up for a formidable unit.

The T20I games will be played amidst tight security, with "at least 500 meters of the main road leading to a five-star hotel where teams are staying is completely cordoned off". But this is about celebration of cricket, it is about cricket starved fans of Pakistan getting the opportunity to watch international cricketers in front of their eyes.

Let there be lights, camera and action at the city of gardens... Lahore.

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