Former India player turned famous commentator Aakash Chopra has stated that Mohammad Rizwan deserves immense praise for his stunning batting during Pakistan’s T20 World Cup 2021 semi-final loss against Australia. He scored 67 runs off 52 deliveries to help post a target of 177 runs for Australia. However, they chased down the target with an over in hand to knock Pakistan out of the mega event as well.

While talking about Pakistan’s batting performance in a video shared on his YouTube channel, Aakash Chopra applauded the efforts of Rizwan and Babar Azam as well. He said: “When Australia won the toss and opted to field, Babar came to bat. How well he was batting, the timing at the start – it was just surreal. There was Rizwan with him, who was struggling a little at the start, but the guy is worthy of praise.”

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Aakash Chopra elaborated: “The boldness with which he [Rizwan] plays, he has not played too many knockout matches in his life, but the way he batted, it was worth watching. It was enjoyable to watch him bat and Babar as well, although he did slow down a little. I was expecting that his wagon will run a little faster.”

However, Rizwan’s 67-run knock was comprised of three fours and four sixes. He added a 71-run opening wicket partnership with Azam to give Pakistan a brilliant start as well. However, he also praised how he smashed massive sixes off Mitchell Starc’s bowling.

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“After that comes Fakhar Zaman, who scores 17 runs off the first 17 balls. The game was stuck a little but then cometh the hour, cometh the man. He is the man for knockouts, our 2017 wounds are still fresh. He made runs here as well and the batting at the end was fantastic. What amazing sixes he hit, who hits sixes like that against Mitchell Starc but he did that. He took the team to 176, that’s a lot of runs, to be very honest,” Aakash Chopra concluded.