“Forget fake Mr. Bean”: Babar Azam grabs Superman catch to dismiss Regis Chakabva at Perth Stadium

Babar Azam grabs Superman catch: The Pakistani captain was quite alert in the slips to not let any opportunity go away.

It wouldn’t be wrong to say that Zimbabwe had kick-started their innings against Pakistan in a manner no one expected them to do. Having put on board 31 runs in the first three overs, Zimbabwe’s calculated aggression paid off at the Perth Stadium but it was a pity that they couldn’t carry it on for longer.

Just when the aforementioned start had started to justify captain Craig Ervine’s (19) decision to bat first, Zimbabwe start to lose wickets at regular intervals before losing them in clusters in the middle overs.

There was a brief six-ball period before the death overs where Zimbabwe lost as many as four wickets without scoring a single run to nullify all progress made the top-order batters. As a result, it wasn’t astonishing that they ended up with a below par 130/8 in 20 overs.

Playing this match in place of batter Asif Ali, all-rounder Mohammad Wasim provided a rationale for his selection after emerging as the best Pakistani bowler with bowling figures of 4-0-24-4. In addition to Wasim, vice-captain Shadab Khan also troubled the Zimbabwean batters on the back of picking bowling figures of 4-0-23-3 tonight.

Babar Azam grabs Superman catch to dismiss Regis Chakabva at Perth Stadium

Apart from calling his shots perfectly, Pakistan captain Babar Azam also made his presence felt on the field. Simultaneous to his bowlers’ efforts in Western Australia, Azam grabbed limelight for grabbing a stunning one-handed catch to dismiss Zimbabwe wicket-keeper batter Regis Chakabva (0).

It all happened on the last delivery of the 14th over when Chakabva edged a Shadab Khan delivery to Azam at first slip. A natural leg-spinner’s delivery turning away from a right-handed batter handed Azam with a chance of completing a difficult catch as the ball was travelling at quite some speed.

Quick on his toes and with his reflexes, Azam plucked the ball from thin air with his right hand to become an instance source of amazement. Chakabva, on the other hand, couldn’t change his fortune with respect to a lean patch in spite of batting in the middle-order after opening the batting earlier in the tournament.

For the unversed, a reference to legendary television character Mr. Bean was made regarding this match due to this reason.