Babar Azam has equaled Virat Kohli and Rohit to script a world record with an brilliant 79* vs NZ

After suffering a 4-3 loss in the seven-match home series against England, the Men in Green started the tri-series in New Zealand in superb fashion with two back-to-back wins. They won the first match against Bangladesh on Friday by 21 runs.

Then, on Saturday, they beat the hosts, New Zealand, by 6 wickets to win two out of two. The star of the win over the Black Caps was skipper Babar Azam, who stood strong in the tricky chase and, despite losing in-form Mohammad Rizwan early, finished the game by himself.

Rizwan, who was "Man of the Match" in the first game for his brilliant 78* off 50 balls, got out for a 12-ball 4 in a 148-run chase. But Babar made sure that Pakistan were going to end the game without many hick-ups. He added good partnerships with Shadab Khan (34) and Mohammad Nawaz (16) and won the game for his team.

Babar remained unbeaten on 79* off 53 balls, including 11 fours, and was also adjudged the "Man of the Match" in the second T20I at the Hagley Oval, Christchurch. Notably, with this knock, the Pakistan skipper has also equalled Indian skipper Rohit Sharma and former Indian skipper Virat Kohli in a huge world record.

It was 28th half-century in T20I for Babar Azam and he has now equalled Virat Kohli, who also had the same number of half-centuries with the same number of innings. Both batters scored their respective 28th half-century in their 84th innings.

Notably, it was the 12th T20I fifty for Babar in a chase and he has equalled Rohit, who also has 12 fifties in T20I chasing. The Pakistan skipper is now behind only Virat (19) and Australian opener David Warner.

Babar's 11 out of 12 half-centuries have come in a winning cause, which is equal to Warner's. Only Virat (15) has scored the most T20I half-centuries in a successful chase.