'Cometh the hour, cometh Md Rizwan' - Fans react as Mohammad Rizwan blasts 86* runs off 73 balls against Sri Lanka in Asia Cup 2023

Despite all the rain affecting the virtual Semi-Final between Pakistan and Sri Lanka in the Asia Cup 2023, it has panned out well until now. Especially for Muhammad Rizwan, who came to Pakistan's rescue at the time when the two-time Asia Cup champions were struggling. At one stage, the Pakistan team were 130/5 on board. The wicketkeeper batting, until now, had a pretty hot and cold tournament but this innings from him certainly put Pakistan in the driving seat.

The team was struggling with all the top guns like Fakhar Zaman (4), Abdullah Shafique (52) as well as skipper Babar Azam (29) all back in the hut. But Rizwan came to the rescue of the Pakistan team along with Iftikhar Ahmed (47), taking the attack to the Sri Lankan bowler. The prolific batter scored an unbeaten 86 runs off just 73 deliveries along with six boundaries and two monstrous sixes to his name.

This innings from the wicketkeeper batter was so significant as the pitch was bowling-friendly and assisted the spin bowlers more. Rizwan, who came into bat at number four, showed absolute grit in the way he shifted gears once he got his eye in then he went after the bowling smashing with a strike rate of more than 140 plus.

Let us look at how Twitter has reacted to this scintillating effort of the prolific batter

Cometh the hour, cometh Md Rizwan

— Shubham Shrivastav (@shubhshr28) September 14, 2023

Without his efforts, Pak couldn't
have reached even 200

— Patel 🏹 (@Patelshyd) September 14, 2023

Rizwan played today best inning for Pakistan in this Asia cup in pressure situation..

— Satya Prakash (@Satya_Prakash08) September 14, 2023

The maturity with which Rizwan anchored his innings has once again proved that he has the ability to fit in the shoes of Inzmam.

— Teri Meri Baatein (@TeriMeriBaatein) September 14, 2023

great knock in today match

— Utkarsh Singh Rudra (@imutkarshrudra) September 14, 2023

Quality inning today...

— Patel 🏹 (@Patelshyd) September 14, 2023

One the best Rizwan

— عمران خان کا کھلاڑی (@hazratali627) September 14, 2023

Superman 👑♥️

— Maheen🖤🇵🇰 (@mahi5621_) September 14, 2023

Pakistan won the toss and elected to bat first

The match which was delayed due to rain, started off with 45 overs per side. The toss went in the favor of Pakistan skipper Babar Azam, who elected to bat first on a which had assistant for bowlers. The Pakistan team made a cautious start to their innings. But lost the price wicket of their opener Fakhar in just the fifth over.

But after that, the Pakistan team kept on losing wickets at regular intervals. It was the reason which saw them being reduced to 130/5. However, the partnership of 108 runs between Rizwan and Iftikhar made sure that the host posted a respectable total on the board. Inspired by some terrific range hitting the Pakistan team were able to score 252 runs in their innings. However, due to the DLS method, the match 1 run was deducted from Pakistan’s total resulting in Sri Lanka needing 252 runs to win the all-important clash.