Sharjeel’s barnstorming 152 sets up record Pakistan win

Pakistan 337 for 6 (Sharjeel 152, Malik 57*, Nawaz 53, McCarthy 4-62) beat Ireland 82 (Wasim 5-14, Gul 3-23) by 255 runsScorecard and ball-by-ball

In the list of the fastest ODI centuries by Pakistan and you will see a familiar name: Shahid Afridi. Afridi is still the owner of the three fastest hundreds, but now there is a new man lurking behind him: Sharjeel Khan, who is now the proud owner of the fastest century by a Pakistani not named Afridi and the architect of the heaviest victory by runs in the country’s ODI history.

The tempo of Sharjeel’s innings – and the utterly one-sided nature of this match – was established in the first over. Undeterred by muggy skies or the threat of seam, Sharjeel scythed his second ball, from Tim Murtagh, through the offside and then launched the over’s final delivery for a straight six.

That same impudent spirit defined the rest of his innings. Sharjeel treated Ireland’s bowlers as if he was range-hitting against local net bowlers. The shot with which he brought up his century, a sweep to leg that was misfielded, actually had a subtlety out of sync with the rest of his stay; this was an innings of unrelenting brutality, defined above all by Sharjeel’s brazen, clean hitting to the leg side, pulling imperiously and launching the ball over long on with impunity.

The violence was also out of sync with the bucolic setting at Malahide. This is the venue that Ireland hope to turn into their fortress, yet not only were their team humiliated on the pitch, their ignominious batting collapse made all the more unpalatable by coming in the best conditions of the day, yet here the home fans were outdone – if not in number, then certainly in noise – by Pakistan’s supporters. When Sharjeel raised his helmet and performed the Sajdah in celebration at his maiden ODI century, coming off only 61 balls and four days after his 27th birthday, he did so against a backdrop of chants of “Pakistan! Zindabad”.

He only became more merciless after reaching his century. Twenty-five balls later he had sailed past 150, greeting the slow emergence of the sun with a series of shots that not merely …

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