Asia Cup 2023: Credit to Babar Azam for the way he batted, says Nepal captain Rohit Paudel after Multan defeat

Nepal skipper Rohit Paudel credited Babar Azam for the way he batted after Pakistan registered a massive win of 238 runs at Multan Cricket Stadium on Wednesday. Azam scored a piece de resistance knock of 151 runs off just 131 balls with the help of 14 fours and four sixes.

Ergo, he played an instrumental role in helping Pakistan post a gargantuan total of 342 runs on the board after winning the toss. Azam added a brilliant alliance of 214 runs off 131 balls with Iftikhar Ahmed, who played a fantastic knock of 109 runs off only 71 balls. Iftikhar scored the fourth-fastest fifty in the Asia Cup history as he batted at the top of his game.

Azam also became the first captain to score more than 150 in an Asia Cup game. Furthermore, this was the second-highest individual score in the history of the Asia Cup after Virat Kohli’s 183.

“We started well with the ball, but both set batters took the game away from us. We have batted better before and we missed out today. Wicket-taking balls were not there in middle overs, but credit to Babar for the way he batted, credit to Pakistan,” said Paudel.

Paudel admitted they need to learn from this huge loss and they should improve their death bowling.

“We’re learning from the game. We need to improve bowling in death overs, as a group we need to step up with the bat,” Paudel added.

It was a dominating performance from Pakistan as they bundled out Nepal for only 104 runs as none of the batters could get goin. Shadab Khan was the pick of the Pakistan bowlers as he returned with impressive figures of 4-27. Furthermore, Haris Rauf and Shaheen Afridi scalped two wickets each.

Pakistan will play their next match against arch-rivals India at Pallekele on Saturday.