Babar and Rizwan's partnership of 197 from 107 balls ripped the game away from the hosts as Pakistan gained an unassailable 2-1 lead in the four-match series.

Babar marked the day he unseated Virat Kohli to become the top-ranked ODI batsman in the world with another brilliant limited-overs innings, albeit in the shortest format this time.

Pakistan captain Babar Azam became the new no.1 batsman in the latest ICC ODI rankings released on Wednesday.

The Pakistan captain hit 103 off 104 balls and his team was cruising at 186-1 at SuperSport Park after South Africa scored 273-6 in its 50 overs.

Malan, who was under pressure owing to his tally of 79 runs in the first four games with no half-century scores, scored an impressive half-century as a better strike rate to get to the milestone.

A complaint was filed in the Cyber Crime Cell and an enquiry revealed that one of the numbers used to send the threatening messages belonged to Babar Azam.

Razzaq said that Kohli is a good player and has a good record against Pakistan.

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Already captain of Pakistan's T20 and ODI teams, Babar was appointed as skipper of the test side in November and was supposed to make his test captaincy debut in New Zealand.

Babar raised his 16th test half-century and was unbeaten on 77 with a dozen boundaries while left-handed Alam continued his rich batting form to be 42 off 138 balls.

Babar, Pakistan's captain in his first test series, needs at least a draw in the second test to secure Pakistan’s first test series win against South Africa in 18 years.

Pakistan won the first Test against South Africa, which comes after a clean-sweep loss against New Zealand in the two-Test series.

Azam has recovered from a thumb injury that kept him out of the two-test series in New Zealand, which Pakistan lost 2-0.

After the second Test which will be played in Rawalpindi from February 4-8, the two teams will compete in three T20 Internationals in Lahore on February 11, 13 and 14.

Babar, who missed the entire series in New Zealand due to a thumb fracture, is presently preparing for the home Test and T20 series against South Africa. 

The Rawalpindi Express rates Virat Kohli and Babar Azam as most complete batsmen for all formats.

Babar was again ruled out of the second test on Saturday although he had had a nets session on Friday.

The 26-year-old was also adjudged the White-ball Cricketer of the Year after averaging 110.5 and 55.2 in the ODIs and T20Is respectively.

A spokesperson for the national team said from Christchurch that Babar had a proper nets session with the other players ahead of the game beginning on Sunday.

While a lot many justifiable names were part of the lists, there were a few too many surprise omissions and selections made by ICC, one of the major omissions being the absence of Pakistan players from the Test and T20I team, for which they have received flak from across the globe.