Babar surpasses Vivian Richards in elite ODI list

Birmingham (IANS): Babar Azam scored a brilliant century to help Pakistan register a comfortable six-wicket win over New Zealand in their crucial World Cup fixture in Birmingham.

During the course of his unbeaten 101 on Wednesday, Babar became the second fastest batsman to score 3,000 ODI runs. The 24-year-old reached the milestone in his 68th innings during Pakistan's chase of a 238-run target at Edgbaston.

South Africa's Hashim Amla tops the list as he scored 3,000 ODI runs in 57 innings. West Indies great Vivian Richards comes at the third spot as he had taken 69 innings to amass 3,000 ODI runs, followed by West Indies' CG Greenidge (72) and South Africa's Gary Kirsten (72).

Indian opener Shikhar Dhawan is at the sixth spot in the list as he reached the milestone in 72 innings, followed by Joe Root (72), Kane Williamson (73), Quinton de Kock (74) and Virat Kohli (75).

Wednesday's win helped Pakistan move to the sixth spot in the points table.

They have seven points from seven games and need to win their remaining two matches against Afghanistan and Bangladesh and hope for favourable results in matches of other teams to reach the semifinals of the ongoing tournament.