Records galore for Pakistan in ODI at Bulawayo

BULAWAYO, Zimbabwe: A number of records fell to Pakistan as they thrashed Zimbabwe by a huge margin of 244 runs in the fourth One-day International on Friday.

This was Pakistan's second biggest win in ODIs, behind the 255-run win over Ireland in 2015. This is also the eleventh largest victory overall. New Zealand holds the record for the largest victory – by 299 runs against Ireland at Aberdeen in 2008.

This was Pakistan's second biggest win in ODIs, behind the 255-run win over Ireland in 2015.

Batting first, Pakistan plundered 399 runs for the loss of only one wicket in 50 overs. This is Pakistan’s highest total in an ODI. Previous record was 385-7 against Bangladesh at Dambulla on June 21, 2010.

This is only the fifth instance of any team putting together a total in excess of 300 while losing only one wicket. Sri Lanka have achieved this feat thrice earlier but Pakistan's score is the highest for any team going past the 362 for 1 made by India against Australia in 2013.

Fakhar Zaman became the first Pakistan player to hit a double century in one-day internationals, scoring an unbeaten 210 off 156 balls with five sixes and 24 boundaries.

He broke the record of hitting the highest individual score by a Pakistani when he surpassed 194, made by Saeed Anwar against India at Chennai in 1997.

Fakhar’s 210 not out is the eighth double hundred in ODI cricket after five double tons were made by Indian and one each by New Zealand and the West Indies batsmen.

Fakhar is the sixth batsman to perform this feat. Earlier, India’s Rohit Sharma did it thrice - 264, 209 and 208*) while his team-mates Virender Sehwag (219) and Sachin Tendulkar (200*), along with New Zealand’s MG Guptill (237*) and West Indies’ Chris Gayle (215) made one double ton each.

Fakhar and Imam-ul-Haq made together 304 runs for the opening stand. This first-wicket partnership broke the record of 286 set by Sanath Jayasuriya and Upul Tharanga for Sri Lanka against England at Headingley in 2006.

This is also Pakistan´s biggest partnership for any wicket in ODIs, superseding the 263 runs added by Inzamam-ul-Haq and Aamer Sohail against New Zealand, in 1994.

Fakhar and Imam became only the fourth pair across teams to add 300 runs for any wicket in ODIs.

Fakhar and Imam brought up their third hundred partnership in four games.

Along with Fakhar’s double ton, Imam also scored a hundred – 113 off 122 balls. Thus both struck their third individual ODI century each in their career and their second in this series.

This is for the seventh time that both openers scored a hundred in an innings for Pakistan. Following is the list of six previous incidents:

Saeed Anwar (126) & Rameez Raja (107) vs SL, at Adelaide, 1989-90

Saeed Anwar (110) & Rameez Raja (109*) vs SL, at Sharjah, 1992-93

Saeed Anwar (107) & Asif Mujtaba (113*) vs SL, at Sharjah, 1993-94

Yasir Hameed (127*) & Imran Farhat (107) vs NZ, at Rawalpindi, 2003-04

Salman Butt (132) & Kamran Akmal (100) vs Bangladesh, at Lahore, 2008

Mohammad Hafeez (105) & Nasir Jamshed (112) vs India, at Dhaka, 2011-12

The 323 combined runs scored by the two openers is the second most ever in ODIs and 90 runs more than Pakistan's previous record.

Fakhar now has 980 runs from just 17 innings in ODIs and averages 75.38. five players have reached 1000 runs in ODIs from 21 innings and Fakhar needs just 20 runs from the next three innings to become the first to do it in 20 innings.