Watch: 'Rather than putting team first...': Simon Doull brutally takes down Babar Azam on-air for prioritizing century
Babar Azam received significant backlash after he slowed down considerably as he neared his century during the Pakistan Super League match against Quetta Gladiators.
The Pakistan Super League saw a high-scoring game on Tuesday night as Quetta Gladiators produced an incredible performance to defeat Peshawar Zalmi by 8 wickets in Rawalpindi. Batting first, the Babar Azam-led Peshawar posted a mammoth score of 240/2 in 20 overs with the skipper scoring a brilliant century (115 off 65 deliveries). However, in an incredible display of power-hitting, the Gladiators chased down the target with 10 balls to spare, as England's Jason Roy smashed an epic unbeaten century in Rawalpindi.
Roy scored 145 off just 63 deliveries, hitting 20 fours and five sixes to not only steer the Gladiators to a memorable win, but also registered a highest individual score in the history of the PSL.
Even as the match saw high scores from both the teams, however, Babar Azam was once again at the centre of criticism over his pace of scoring. Babar had a quickfire start to his innings but he slowed down considerably as he steered closer to his century; he had scored 83 off 46 deliveries, and then took 14 deliveries to reach his century.
The sudden drop in run-scoring didn't go unnoticed as Simon Doull, the former New Zealand cricketer who was on-air during the game, lashed out at Babar for putting his personal milestones above the team's goal.
“Rather than putting the team first... the last little while, that's all that been happening. Rather than looking for boundaries, still so much firepower to come. Hundreds are brilliant, stats are great, but it has to be team first,” Doull said during his commentary stint.
Babar, alongside Saim Ayub (74 off 34 deliveries), forged a 162-run partnership for the first wicket in merely 13.3 overs. Rovman Powell, then, also scored a brisk 35 off 18 deliveries to help the Zalmi reach 240/2 in their innings.
Quetta did lose an early wicket of Martin Guptill (21 off 8 balls), thanks to an impressive caught-and-bowled dismissal from Wahab Riaz. However, Jason Roy pulled the strings for Gladiators as Will Smeed (26) and Mohammad Hafeez (41*) played supporting roles in an emphatic win for Mohammad Nawaz-led side. With the win, Gladiators climbed to fifth place in the points table with three wins in nine matches.
