Babar Azam's 13th ODI century led Pakistan to victory over South Africa in the first ODI of the series. Pakistan won the match off the final delivery; however Babar and Imam had set up the chase perfectly and it would have been a much easier win had it not been for some middle order panic.

Babar, the world's number two ranked ODI batsman, has grown in stature with every season. He smashed his 13th ODI ton in only his 76th innings, faster to the mark than any other batsman in the world.

In the past 2 years, since the start of 2019, Babar is among the leading run scorers in ODIs. The most remarkable feature of this is his average of 67 in this period, which is significantly higher than all the other leading run scorers during this time.

He sits well above the rest.

Babar's career average is also not bad.

He is averaging a shade below 57 in ODIs, which is the second highest ODI batting average in the history of the game, behind only Virat Kohli's 59. 

It is still early days, but the best part about Babar's ODI form is that captaincy has done it no harm whatsoever.

He has a long road ahead of him, as a batsman and as a captain, but for now, he sits right up there among captains with the best batting averages in ODIs.

Another great aspect about Babar's ODI form is that it is prevalent against all opposition and in all kinds of conditions.

He scores against all nations and he scores in all countries he tours.

His averages against and in these nations do all the talking.

There is plenty of cricket ahead for Babar Azam. He is still at the start of his career and if he can go on producing the way he has over the past 5 years, he will no doubt become the best batsman ever to play for Pakistan, if not the world.

He can end this series against South Africa as the number one ranked ODI batsman. He has tough competition there with the current best batsman in the world - Virat Kohli - but he is right up there with him.

Pakistan can do wonders if they elect to do the right thing after winning the toss!

It was the third consecutive toss that Sarfraz Ahmed won in this ICC World Cup 2019, but it was only the first time he elected to bat, something he should have done against both Australia and India.

In the week leading up to Pakistan's match against South Africa at Lord's, the team was ridiculed and the captain was mocked endlessly. Sarfraz Ahmed's yawn memes went viral and stories of Shoaib Malik's sheesha loving sub-group spread like wildfire.

Despite all this drama and criticism, Pakistan fought back like they always do, showcasing the resilience of the team and the nation.

This Lord's win was special, and Lord's was magical!

Haris Sohail played the innings of his life. I have never seen him bat like this. He has a career strike rate of 85, at Lord's he batted at a strike rate of 150! For someone who had been left on the bench till now, to come back and bat in this manner, was quite awesome.

Aamir, Wahab, and Shadab produced some excellent bowling and ensured that South Africa were never on top. No one defends totals the way Pakistani bowlers do and to watch it live in action is arguably one of the best experiences one can have.

Pakistan's win was surely special, but Lord's was made magical by all the Pakistanis who had flown to London from all around the world.

Lord's was a sea of green and it was quite amazing meeting old friends from LUMS and Abu Dhabi, enjoying the game with my friends from Dubai and London, and making new friends!

The day started with giving an interview to Cricinfo. The passion and belief you see among us is unparalleled.

We were interviewed outside Lord's by two of my favorite cricket writers - Osman Samiuddin and Sharda Ugra.


At the Lord's gate I met two of my college friends with whom I had gone through LUMS two decades ago. One had flown in from San Francisco and the other from Karachi.



























Lord's is a magnificent stadium. It has to be, after all it is the Home of Cricket. Its beauty, the flowers in particular, was pointed out by another old friend from LUMS with whom I had experienced the heartbreak of the World Cup in 1999.


The Lord's media center is fascinating. Probably the best media center at a cricket ground. Here are two of us who flew in from Dubai and one who flew in from San Francisco, with the media center in the background.


Nothing made this Lord's win more special than to witness it with my oldest and closest friend with whom I have gone through every single World Cup since 1996!


I even met guys that I grew up with in Abu Dhabi in the 90s!


And more people that I went to LUMS with twenty years ago...


Ofcourse our London host who moved from Dubai to London just to make this trip possible was also there.


As were two little boys, a four year old and a 3-month old, both experiencing their first ever cricket match inside a stadium. What a match as their first, and what a ground to do it at!


After watching matches together at each others homes, at Dubai International Cricket Stadium, at Premadasa International Cricket Stadium, and The Oval, the Dubai boys have now added Lord's to the list as well.


It was an impressive victory for Pakistan and it was made all the more special by witnessing it together.


It was witnessed not only with old friends, but also with new ones! Here is the lost from San Francisco, the Midlife Crisis Cricket Club - whom I have been chatting away with on Whatsapp Groups and whom I met for the first time yesterday. What a passionate lot of Pakistan cricket fans.


Pakistan's victory at Lord's was special no doubt, but what made Lord's truly magical yesterday was all the Pakistan fans who believed in the team, who flew in for the match from different parts of the world, who witnessed a special knock from Haris Sohail and fiery spells from Aamir, Wahab, and Shadab.

Many said that Pakistan's World Cup will start after the match with India, and it truly has started with this win over South Africa.

We still believe that we can make it to the semifinals and we all will be there in Birmingham on Wednesday to get Pakistan one step closer to the knockout stages.

Come on PAKISTAAAAAN!

For as long as Inzamam Ul Haq remains PCB's Chief Selector, poor Imam Ul Haq will have to bear the brunt of judgement calls and nepotism remarks.

Pakistan have now played 4 ODIs at Port Elizabeth and haven't lost even one!

That is quite a record for them in a place like South Africa.

No one really expected Pakistan to win the first ODI. I mean our ODI team is worse than our test team, and with the way the test team was wiped out, it was really difficult to expect the ODI team to win anything.

For starters, I felt Pakistan played the wrong XI.

I had wanted Shan Masood, Mohammad Amir, and Shaheen Afridi to be in the starting XI.

Leading up to the match a lot of people had said that they wanted Shan Masood to replace Imam Ul Haq at the top of the order.

That is not what I wanted.

Imam averages 60+ in ODIs and you can't drop someone who has scored 4 centuries and 3 fifties in ODIs because of his failures in test cricket. Imam deserved his spot in the team and he also showed everyone why he should be Pakistan's first choice opener in ODIs.

After this innings in the first ODI, Imam averages 64.6 and has scored 4 hundreds and 4 fifties in 17 innings!

What I had actually wanted was for Pakistan to go in with a top 6 comprising Fakhar, Imam, Shan, Babar, Hafeez, and Malik.

I feel Sarfraz at 6 is one position too high. He is not the batsman you want coming in at 50-4, which is something that happens to Pakistan quite often.

I know that means playing a bowler short but Hafeez, Malik, and Fakhar should be able to provide 10 overs among them. Moreover in a place like South Africa, and England (during the WC later in the year), even Shan Masood can turn his arm over for a few overs.

With the above mentioned top 6, followed by Sarfraz, Shadab, Faheem and any two pacers out of Amir, Hasan, Shaheen, Usman is a solid line up in my opinion.

The fact that Pakistan won the first ODI with what was arguably not their best XI is quite heartening.

The bowlers did a tremendous job restricting South Africa to only 266. They looked set for a 300 plus total but never really accelerated. It was a really odd scoreline seeing 266-2 on the board.

Despite that, no one really thought Pakistan could chase 266.

But Imam and Fakhar had different thoughts.

They gave Pakistan a solid start and when Fakhar departed after a quick 25, Babar Azam took over like he does every time he bats in colored clothing.

Imam held the innings together with a 45 run opening partnership, 94-run partnership with Babar, and a 46-run partnership with Hafeez.

Imam has scored 4 ODI centuries, but this 86 was his best ODI innings in my opinion.

After Imam left, it was all about Mohammad Hafeez. He was just sublime.

Dale Steyn missing from the line up probably helped, but after beginning slowly, Hafeez just owned the game and never made it feel like Pakistan will not get there.

It was great to see Pakistan win something on this tour after the embarrassing test losses, and it was heartening to see Pakistan win against a top team in ODIs, a format in which they have struggled heavily in recent times.

With 2019 being the World Cup year, it is a fantastic start for Pakistan's ODI team. 

Only Pakistan are capable of being decimated by the world's number 3 ranked team one day, and totally dominate the world's number 1 ranked team on another. Only Pakistan can drive such fluctuating emotions among the cricketing fraternity.

Everything from Pakistan's bowling to their fielding, catching, running between the wickets, and batting showed significant improvement. It was a massive turnaround.

But let us not forget that South Africa are just as unpredictable as Pakistan are when it comes to ICC tournaments. South Africa have been and will always be easy pushovers in ICC tournaments.

It was a great game for Pakistan, but it wasn't perfect. While many things went right for them, there were still some mistakes.

WHAT WENT RIGHT FOR PAKISTAN

1. No Wahab Riaz for starters. Junaid Khan bowled beautifully with the new ball and then showed some great reverse swing skills at the death. Wahab has been lacking in both aspects for quite some time now.

2. Hafeez got to bowl. Why he did not get a single over against India will forever remain a mystery. His effectiveness against left handers could have come handy against Shikhar Dhawan.

3. Attacking fields ensured South African batsmen could not take easy singles. Sarfraz even had a slip after the 25th over, which resulted in a wicket.

4. It is amazing how a few quick wickets can make one field better. Pakistan's fielders looked unstoppable in the field yesterday. They were stopping runs, diving around, and just seemed to be every where.

5. Catches win matches. Who knows what India's total would have looked like had Yuvraj and Kohli been dismissed for 8 and 42 respectively. Pakistan's fielders held on to everything that came their way yesterday.

6. Fakhar Zaman. Just the sort of batsman Pakistan needs at the top. Again we will never know what took them so long to induct Fakhar into the ODI side. He looked authoritative at the crease, punished anything slightly loose, ran hard, and scored at a rate that all other Pakistani batsmen are unfamiliar with.

Really makes one wonder why this team was not played against India, doesn't it?

WHAT PAKISTAN DID WRONG

Despite the win, it wasn't at all perfect. There are still chinks in Pakistan's armor and significant scope for improvement.

1. Dot Balls. Pakistan played out 106 dot balls out of the 162 deliveries that they faced. That is huge percentage - 65% !!! Teams don't even play that many dot balls in their 50 over innings, let alone when they face only 27 overs!

Pathetic really. The main culprits are the usual ones - Azhar Ali and Mohammad Hafeez. Why don't they learn? Why can't they at least take singles? Why must they seem so inept at the crease?

Babar Azam looked like a transformed batsman as soon as Shoaib Malik walked out, who seemed to be batting on an entirely different pitch than Hafeez was.

2. Bowling changes by Sarfraz Ahmed left a lot to be desired once again. It is criminal to not allow your best bowlers on the day to bowl their full quota of overs. Hasan Ali and Imad Wasim bowled only 8 overs each. Imagine what Pakistan would have been chasing had these two bowled 4 more more overs.

The two bowlers that completed their 10 overs were the ones with the worst economy.

And your best bowler against India bowled only 5 overs.

Our ODI captain has a long long way to go and learn.

I hope Pakistan get keep on improving and once again become the ODI force they used to be. At least they are starting to make the right changes.

A few more like replacing Azhar and Hafeez with younger and more aggressive batsmen, getting Faheem Ashraf into the XI, and moving Sarfraz higher up the order, can do wonders for this ODI team.

For now, here's hoping they can repeat their performance against Sri Lanka and then let other match results decide whether Pakistan plays the semifinals or not.

"In other words, submission. Because, finally, what Pakistan are doing in these moments is asking you to submit. They are asking you, opponent and spectator, to submit to their reality, their chaos, their unplanning, their spur of the moment, their pox, their talent, their wretchedness, their beauty, their spirit." - Osman Samiuddin

Last night's second one day international between Pakistan and South Africa was an unbelievable game of cricket.

It was a game that reminded the Pakistani fans of their wins in the 90s when Wasim and Waqar would bring the team back from no where.

It was a game that reminded the Pakistani fans to believe again.

It was a game that made the Pakistani fans fall in love with their cricketers again.

To beat South Africa in South Africa in any form of the game is an achievement. To beat them in a series is a bigger achievement. And then to think that you have become the first ever team from the subcontinent to win a series in South Africa, is just overwhelming!

That is an achievement and a half for this Pakistan team, which not very long ago was being thrashed by South Africa in ODIs and T20s.

It has been an amazing comeback for the Boys in Green!

Everything worked yesterday for Pakistan.

A century partnership between Ahmed Shehzad and Sohaib Maqsood at a run rate of almost 6 per over provided them with a platform to fire from. Umar Akmal and Bilawal Bhatti, who very soon will move above Afridi in the batting order, finished the innings perfectly.

262 in 45 overs was a daunting target. It was going to be difficult for South Africa, especially considering that they were up against an in form bowling unit.

Junaid Khan gave Pakistan the perfect start, removing Smith early and keep the run rate in check. Even though Amla and De Kock kept it together for South Africa, their scoring rate of 4-4.5 an over never threatened Pakistan.

When Afridi came on to bowl, Amla and De Kock were well settled but the required run rate was steadily creeping towards 7 an over. Afridi, who has been superb with the ball against South Africa, applied more pressure and accounted for De Kock and Kallis in quick succession.

119-3 in 26. 144 required in 19 overs at 7.58. Game Over?

It looked like it, but AB De Villiers had different things in mind.

ABD went about his job and made the chase look like a cake walk.

The only time South Africa looked like they were in the hunt was when ABD was out there in the middle.

He smashed the bowling around, toyed with Pakistan's premier spinner, hit out against Pakistan's most economical bowler, and looked to take the game away from the Greens.

During the course of his innings, ABD brought down the run rate from over 7.5 to below 5.5.

It was a crushing match winning knock by the South African captain. But only just.

When ABD fell to a good catch by Afridi on the boundary, South Africa were left with only 36 runs to get from 38 deliveries with 6 wickets in hand. Amla was batting on 86 and JP Duminy was walking out to the crease.

It should have been like a walk in the park for South Africa. And it seemed it would be as Amla and Duminy went about their business with ease.

The match seemed lost for Pakistan.

35 from 36, 31 from 30, 26 from 24, 20 from 18, 11 from 12.

Just when it looked like it was game over for Pakistan, Saeed Ajmal delivered a counter punch like no other in the penultimate over of the match.

Amla and Duminy managed only two singles off the first 3 deliveries, and then Ajmal bowled two dot balls.

9 needed from 7. Pressure on South Africa. Ajmal had bowled beautifully.

Off Ajmal's final delivery, Amla went for the big one towards mid wicket. The ball was in the air and two Pakistani fielders were charging towards it. Misbah looked anxiously as Hafeez positioned himself to take the catch, which he held on to. It was a difficult one, but Hafeez remained calm and sent Amla back for a well made 98.

9 needed from the final over of the match.

Junaid Khan had the ball. David Miller was on strike. Duminy at the other end.

Now, it was any body's game.

Miller managed a single of the first delivery and then Duminy heaved the second ball towards mid wicket in the hope of getting a big one early in the over.

Umar Amin ran towards the ball and dived to take a catch inches from the ground. It was a superb effort to catch that in a pressure situation. I know the scorecard says Anwar Ali, even the commentators said Anwar Ali, but it was Umar Amin who caught that ball to send Duminy back.

8 from 4. Pakistan were truly and surely back in it.

Junaid Khan bowled a beautiful final over. His yorkers were spot on and he gave the batsmen no space at all. Reminded me of Wasim bhai. The Pakistani fielders were prowling the boundaries and the square like tigers. The catching was immaculate.

Junaid gave nothing away and Pakistan scraped home with a 1 run win!

A 1 run margin does justice to the sort of cricket that was played last night. But it doesn't do justice to the magical final over bowled by Junaid Khan. The final delivery went for 4 byes, which is why the end result was a 1 run victory.
The last two overs was what Osman Samiuddin has termed "The Haal of Pakistan". According to Osman, the Haal of Pakistan is described in the following words:

"In other words, submission. Because, finally, what Pakistan are doing in these moments is asking you to submit. They are asking you, opponent and spectator, to submit to their reality, their chaos, their unplanning, their spur of the moment, their pox, their talent, their wretchedness, their beauty, their spirit."

It was truly unbelievable. Pakistan pulled of an amazing win. One that should have been easier had it not been for some superlative batting by AB De Villiers.

In either case, it was a magical victory for Pakistan who became the first ever team from the subcontinent to win a series in South Africa.

Reliving the events from last night, and it still feels like pure magic.

Maza aa gaya Pakistaaaan!

It has been 17 years since Shahid Afridi made his ODI debut for Pakistan.