WATCH: Babar Azam executes 'near impossible' catch at covers during second ODI against NZ

Former Pakistan skipper and star batter Babar Azam attracted the eyeballs of the fans; this time it was not for his bat but for his exceptional fielding skills in the second ODI against New Zealand. He executed a stunning catch at the extra covers to dismiss the debutant Kiwi opener Rhys Mariu off star Pakistan pacer Mohammad Wasim.

The moment came on the third ball of the 10th over in the first innings when Wasim bowled a ‘back of a length’ delivery with an extra bounce towards the leg stump. Mariu responded with a premeditated front-foot punch shot and happened to play it quite early. Eventually, the ball took the leading edge of the bat to go in the air towards the extra covers.

Babar Azam was fielding there near the extra covers and immediately moved to his right with an excellent dive to complete an exceptional catch.

The video of this unbelievable catch taken by a former Pakistan skipper also started making rounds on social media as soon as it was shared by a user on X (formerly Twitter).

Here’s the video:

pic.twitter.com/ZfwMn7oocQ

— Aizal Khan (@_aizalkhan) April 1, 2025

Speaking of the action of the game, the visiting skipper, Mohammad Rizwan, won the toss and asked New Zealand to bat first. Batting first, the hosts posted 292 runs for the loss of 8 wickets in the allotted 50 overs.  The young wicketkeeper-batter Mitchell Hay smashed an unbeaten knock of 99 runs off just 78 balls, with seven fours and seven sixes. Besides him, young batter Muhammad Abbas also scored 41 runs off 66 balls, with three fours. Earlier in the innings, Nick Kelly also scored 31 runs off 23 balls, with 4 fours and two sixes.

Mohammad Wasim and Sufiyan Muqeem scalped 2 wickets each, alongside a wicket each picked by Faheem Ashraf, Akif Javed, and Haris Rauf. 
While chasing the target, Pakistan failed to chase down the target as they were bundled out at the score of 208 runs in 41.2 overs. Faheem Ashraf and tailender Naseem Shah played the struggling knocks of 73 and 51 runs but they couldn’t help Pakistan win the game.

Ben Sears claimed an amazing five-wicket haul, claiming 5 wickets at 59 runs in 9.2 overs, alongside 3 wickets at just 35 runs in 8 overs, including a maiden over. Besides these two, Will O’Rourke and Nathan Smith also picked a wicket each to help New Zealand win the game by a big 84-run margin.