Rizwan was one of the winners of Pakistan’s comeback victory. The ‘Man of the Match’ scored 75 off 46 balls in the opener, but the visitors matched Ireland’s score of 193 for 7 and Ireland won the first match by 5 wickets. Pakistan was taken aback.
Pakistan’s chase got off to a miserable start with opener Saim Ayub (6) and captain Babar Azam (0) falling early in the second over. In, the visitors trailed by 2 points on 13 shots. Rizwan then launched a counterattack with Wish Fakhar Zaman, who scored 78 off 40 balls.
They added 140 runs for the third wicket to earn Pakistan a seven-wicket win. Wicketkeeper Azam Khan managed just 30 off 10 balls.
In his post-match speech after the match, Rizwan honestly acknowledged the influence that Indian batting legend Kohli had on Pakistan’s batsmen.
Rizwan responded when asked about Kohli, who is the only two batsman to average more than 50 in T20Is.
“We learned a lot from Virat Kohli; I respect him,” Rizwan said.
Kohli averages 51.75 in T20Is, scoring 4037 runs in 109 innings with a strike rate of 138.15. Rizwan, on the other hand, has scored 3124 runs in 82 innings with an average of 50.38 and a strike rate of 127.92 in T20Is.
About the match and his partnership with Zaman, Rizwan said: “It was not an easy chase as the Irish bowlers understood their conditions better. They made things difficult for us early on but we decided Chasing 194, we have to attack.
The T20 World Cup is scheduled to be played between the United States and West Indies from June 2 to 29. India and Pakistan are in the same group and will face off in New York on June 9.
The decisive third T20I between Pakistan and Ireland will be played on May 14, after which the Babar Azam-led side will travel to England where they will play four T20Is before flying to the United States to take part T20 World Cup.
