Babar Azam’s superb run in England’s T20 Blast refuses to stop with the Pakistan batsman adding another explosive half-century to his name in Somerset’s big win over the Essex Eagles on Wednesday.
Babar struck a 39-ball 56 at Chelmsford to help Somerset post a mammoth 225-6 in their 20 overs and his side then had no trouble in wrapping up a 114-run win with the ball.
With that innings, Babar has now become the leading run-scorer in the 2019 T20 Blast with a total of 323 runs from seven innings so far at an average of nearly 54.
Playing in his maiden stint in the English county circuit, the Pakistan right-hander has been nothing short of sensational in the seven T20 Blast appearances he has made for Somerset so far.
Babar had earlier struck a 61-ball 95 against Hampshire and a 50-ball 83 against Sussex but both his rapid displays had come in a losing cause for Somerset.
Congratulations @babarazam258, voted our @HarrisFowlerLaw man of the match! 👏 #WeAreSomerset #ESSvSOM pic.twitter.com/H5Y8dpkU8q
— Somerset Cricket 🏏 (@SomersetCCC) August 8, 2019
The star batsman has been camped in England since the start of May when Pakistan arrived in the country for a five-match ODI series. The 24-year-old finished as the joint top-scorer of the ODI series after registering one ton and two half centuries over the course of the four games.
He then proceeded to have a stellar individual World Cup campaign where he racked up a total of 474 runs in eight innings at an average of over 67. Babar struck one ton and three half-centuries in the process and his run tally is now the highest achieved by any Pakistan batsman in World Cup history.
Currently ranked No1 in the world in the T20 format, the Pakistan sensation’s immense popularity has already worked wonders for Somerset since his arrival. Somerset stream their T20 Blast clashes on their official website like many other county outfits in England but there were in for a shock during Babar’s first game for the county outfit.
No player has more runs in the 2019 @VitalityBlast than Babar Azam! 🔥#WeAreSomerset pic.twitter.com/QpAkfNPosT
— Somerset Cricket 🏏 (@SomersetCCC) August 8, 2019
With plenty of Pakistan fans logging on to the website to watch their favourite star in action, the website ultimately crashed due the excessive load. According to a report by ESPNcricinfo, the huge spike in rise in visitors to the official website forced Somerset digital marketing executive Ben Warren to upgrade the website server’s capacity.
Babar is well on his way to become one of the greatest batsmen produced by Pakistan and the right-hander had recently become the second fastest man after South Africa’s Hashim Amla to bring up 3,000 ODI runs.
The Pakistan star will be next in action for Somerset on Friday when they take on Hampshire in another Vitality T20 Blast clash at Southampton.
