Zimbabwe defeated Pakistan by one run during the T20 World Cup clash on Thursday. Chasing a 131-run target, Pakistan were restricted to 129-8 in 20 overs.
At one stage it seemed as if Pakistan would easily get over the line as they needed only 43 runs in 39 balls with seven wickets in hand. However, that was not the case as the Zimbabwe bowlers kept picking up wickets during the latter stages of the innings.
Spinner Sikandar Raza was the star of the show with figures of 3-25 in four overs, which included scalps of Shan Masood, Shadab Khan and Haider Ali.
Pakistan needed three runs on the final ball with Shaheen Afridi on strike but the tailender was unable to play the winning shot. He was run out while trying to go back for the second.
Pakistan made a change to their line-up with Asif Ali benched for the extra quick in Mohammad Wasim. Meanwhile, Zimbabwe too made a swap with Tendai Chatara replaced by Bradley Evans.
Opting to bat first, Zimbabwe got off to a flier as a daring Wessley Madhevere and skipper Craig Ervine played some eye-catching shots inside the first two overs. With five boundaries inside the first three overs, Zimbabwe had a fabulous start, racing away at 10 runs per over.
Some of that early momentum toned down when Ervine was sent back by Haris Rauf and his partner got trapped in front by Wasim in the following over. Shadab Khan prized out Milton Shumba before Sean Williams and Sikandar Raza went about the resurrection work.
Shadab completed a brilliant spell of 4-0-23-3 but there was more in store for Zimbabwe from the other end. In the very next over after losing two wickets off back-to-back balls to Shadab, Zimbabwe lost a further two as Mohammad Wasim dismissed Raza and Luke Jongwe off successive balls.
95/3, and what appeared to be a solid start, quickly turned into 95/7 as Pakistan’s bowlers went on a rampage in Perth. Eventually, they put up 130/8 on board with some help from Bradley Evans down the order.
Playing XIs
Pakistan: Mohammad Rizwan (wk), Babar Azam(c), Shan Masood, Iftikhar Ahmed, Shadab Khan, Haider Ali, Mohammad Nawaz, Shaheen Afridi, Haris Rauf, Mohammad Wasim Jr, Naseem Shah
Zimbabwe: Regis Chakabva (wk), Craig Ervine(c), Sean Williams, Sikandar Raza, Wesley Madhevere, Milton Shumba, Brad Evans, Ryan Burl, Luke Jongwe, Blessing Muzarabani, Richard Ngarava
