A spectacular knock by Babar Azam helped Pakistan end New Zealand’s unbeaten start to the 2019 ICC World Cup, as the Asian side beat the Kiwis by six wickets to keep their hopes for a semi-finals spot alive. Bowling first, the left-arm pace brigade of Shaheen Afridi and Mohammad Amir were too hot to handle for the New Zealand top-order, and that was well complimented by a match-winning 126 run partnership between Azam and Haris Sohail.
The win helped Pakistan get to seven points, with games against Bangladesh and Afghanistan to follow. They could potentially now be semi-finalists if England are to slip up in their next couple of games.
Pakistan beating New Zealand also meant that Sarfaraz Ahmed’s side now have share a lot of parallels from their World Cup winning campaign of 1992. Even then, they had lost three, won two games and had one match washed out before they faced an unbeaten New Zealand side in a must win clash.
The similarities between the two campaigns sent Pakistani fans into a frenzy, as the hastag ‘#92MeiBhiYehiHuaTha’ (same things happened in 1992 as well) was trending on social media after Pakistan’s victory over New Zealand.
Here are some of the finest tweets highlighting some creepy coincidences of the two World Cup campaigns.
Similarities continues:
1992 NZ Bat 1st
2019 NZ Bat 1st1992 Ramiz Scored Notout Century
2019 Babar Scored Notout Century1992 Finishes with a boundary
2019 Finishes with a boundary1992 I was Happy
2019 I am Happy— Hasnain Shah (@Shahhasnain69)
Pakistan win the match number 7 with five balls remaining. They won the game 7 with five balls remaining in WC 1992 too. This is getting unbelievable!
— Ibrahim Muhammad (@helloibrahim)
Now they are broadcasting this 92 symmetry of Winning the World cup.
— Ibrahim Muhammad (@helloibrahim)
92 mai Inzi ko Jhonty ne esay run-out kiya tha. I am dead. is real.
— Rehan Ulhaq (@Rehan_ulhaq)
I've succumbed to the similarities curse. Here are some interesting (and contrived ones).
There are FIFTEEN in all!!
— Victor Tarapore (@VictorTarapore)
This is getting unbelievable
— M@leeh@_Ali (@MleehAli1)
Feature Image courtesy: Cricket World Cup/ Twitter
