RAWALPINDI, Dec 7: Pakistan’s new set of openers Yasir Hameed and Imran Farhat on Sunday set a world record in limited-overs cricket when they registered their fourth consecutive hundred-run opening partnership in the fifth one-dayer against New Zealand here.

Yasir and Imran followed their 115-run partnership in the second match in Lahore with 142 at Faisalabad and 134 in the fourth match in Rawalpindi with another domineering 197 in the fifth match.

They became the sixth set of openers to record century stands in two successive one-day matches.

Indias Sachin Tendulkar and Virender Sehwag have the unique distinction of registering two century stands in consecutive one-day games on two occasions while four other pairs achieved the feat.

Tendulkar and Sehwag put 107 and 134 versus England in 2001-2002 and then 103 and 182 against Australia and New Zealand last month.

Since one-day cricket started in 1971, Pakistan’s Ramiz Raja and Saeed Anwar (132 and 204 v Sri Lanka, 1992-93), Saleem Elahi and Taufiq Umar (159 and 154 v Zimbabwe, 2002-03), Sri Lankan Marvan Atapattu and Sanath Jayasuriya (171 v Bangladesh and 137 v India, 1997-98) and Australian pair Adam Gilchrist and Mark Waugh (114 and 189 v New Zealand, 1999-2000) have registered two century stands in successive one-day matches.

Imran in the company of Taufiq Umar equalled the world record of three century stands in successive Test innings against South Africa in October.

Pakistan had tried 12 different openers in the last two and a half years with Saeed Anwar, Shahid Afridi, Taufiq Umar, Saleem Elahi, Yasir Hameed, Imran Farhat, Abdul Razzaq, Shoaib Malik, Imran Nazir, Faisal Iqbal, Naved Latif and Kamran Akmal.—AFP