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 runs
Scorecard 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 cleared the boundary at Malahide, but would have done so at any ground in the world. While Sharjeel was batting, there seemed not so much one game of cricket being played as two: the bedlam when he was at the crease, and the relative tranquillity when he was not, as Mohammad Hafeez took 59 balls over 37.

Perhaps Sharjeel's impact was overdue. He made his ODI debut three years ago but, after a sparkling 61 on debut, his form collapsed, and he was dropped after 11 ODIs brought an average of just 17.63, and, in the process ditched from T20 cricket too. The creation of the Pakistan Super League created a new platform for him to impress the selectors, and a 62-ball 117 against Shaun Tait and Wahab Riaz gave note of his talent. He was recalled to Pakistan's T20 side and performed encouragingly in their dismal World T20 campaign.

But many considered him a little on the rotund side for an international cricketer. When Pakistan went on their army boot camp, to Abbottabad, in preparation for their tour to England, Sharjeel struggled, and was given a tailor-made programme to make him fit for international cricket. During Pakistan A's tour of England, he made plenty of runs, including 125 against the England Lions, but more important was the 5kg he lost.

"That boot camp was really special, and the fitness work is really helping us on this tour," he said after his memorable day. "I need to improve my fitness more day-by-day."

Not that Sharjeel did much running here, too busy exploiting the shoddy length of Ireland's bowlers - too full or, more often, too short. Even in a match reduced to 47 overs a side, Sharjeel was on course to waltz past Saeed Anwar's 194, and set a new record for Pakistan's top individual score in an ODI before, attempting to hit his 10th six, he top edged Barry McCarthy to Niall O'Brien.

By now, though, Ireland had cause to fear a chase as onerous as the 378 they were set by Sri Lanka at Malahide exactly two months ago. William Porterfield later reckoned that the game was actually lost in the first 20 overs, when Ireland's bowlers failed to exploit the seaming conditions that had led him to insert Pakistan. For Peter Chase, heaved for 70 in seven overs, matches such as this are indeed "a tough school," as Porterfield reflected; what he would have given to be able to summon Boyd Rankin instead.

The skill of Tim Murtagh and the zest of McCarthy, whose four wickets lifted him to 18 in seven ODIs this summer, created a brief period of calm after Sharjeel's dismissal, but it did not last long. Shoaib Malik, playing his 233rd ODI, and Mohammad Nawaz, playing his first, added 105 to leave Ireland needing to chase over seven an over.

Few gave them a chance of doing so, but nor did they envisage Ireland being bundled out within 24 overs. Imad Wasim feasted on the frailties in Ireland's batting, though he can surely never had to do so little to take a five-wicket haul in professional cricket. The match ended with three Wasim wickets in four deliveries: each came from little more than innocuous arm-balls, as Porterfield later admitted. It summed up a desolate Ireland performance.

While Sharjeel had lifted Pakistan to their insurmountable total, another Pakistan returnee, Umar Gul, ran through Ireland's top order, with a hostile spell of swing bowling in his first ODI for a year. The most mesmerising bowling, though, was reserved for Mohammad Amir, who swung the second ball of the innings to uproot Paul Stirling's off stump, and then had Ed Joyce, defeated by a ball so quick that he could not get his bat out of the line in time, dropped at second slip.

That Amir was only needed to bowl four overs was the final indignity for Ireland. The day ended not merely with their lowest ever total in a home ODI and second lowest anywhere, but the second largest defeat by runs in their history. It also ended with new urgency imbued into the fear that the opportunities that Ireland have craved for so long have come at a time when the team is in decline.