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Zimbabwe punched above their weight and stunned Pakistan by one run in a nail-biting T20 World Cup match on Thursday. Defending a modest 131, Zimbabwe stifiled the Pakistani batters and picked up wickets at regular intervals to stop their fancied rivals at 129 for eight.
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Pakistan-born all-rounder Sikandar Raza turned the match on its head in the middle overs with figures of 3 for 25 from his four overs, which included the wickets of Shan Masood (44), Shahdab Khan (17) and Haider Ali.
Right-arm pacer Brad Evans returned with figures of 2/25, while Blessing Muzarabani (1/18) and Luke Jongwe (1/10) also picked up wickets, to help their side to an incredible win.
It was Pakistan’s second defeat in as many matches after the four-wicket loss to arch-rivals India in another thrilling contest.
For Zimbabwe, it was their first win from two matches. The African side had earlier split points with South Africa following a washout.
Pakistan skipper Babar Azam, at the post-match presentation, said it was a ‘very disappointing performance’ but promised to ‘train hard and come back strong’.
“We would have taken 130 at the halfway stage. Very disappointing performance, we are not up to the mark in batting. We have good batters but both openers got out in the powerplay. When Shadab and Shan were building partnership, unfortunately Shadab got out and then back-to-back wickets that pushed us into pressure situation. First 6 overs, we haven’t used the new ball well but we finished well with the ball. We will sit out, discuss our mistakes and we will train hard and come back strong in our next game,” Babar said.
For the second time in the tournament, star Pakistani openers — skipper Babar Azam and Mohammad Rizwan — failed to provide a good start. Babar looked tentative before he was squared up by a seaming fuller length delivery from Evans.
An over later, Rizwan played on to the stumps a Muzarabani delivery while trying to cut a ball, which was too close to his body.
Iftikhar Ahmed, who scored a brisk fifty against India, didn’t last long either, leaving Pakistan reeling at 36 for three in 7.4 overs.
But Shan Masood held one end up and together with Shadab Khan, shared 52 runs for the fourth wicket to take Pakistan forward.
Leg-spinning all-rounder Raza had other plans, as he brought Zimbabwe back into the contest with three quick wickets, including two in the 14th over.
Raza first initiated a mishit from Shadab as he was holed out at long-off and then sent back Haider Ali for a duck.
Raza’s best moment came in his next over when he got the wicket of Masood, who was brilliantly stumped by Chakabva, as Pakistan slumped to 94 for six in 15.1 overs.
But Nawaz (22) kept Pakistan in the hunt in the company of Wasim and brought down the equation to 11 in the last over.
Nawaz started by picking up three runs and then clobbered a slower delivery from Evans over his head for a maximum.
Evans bounced back brilliantly and dismissed Nawaz in the penultimate ball to bring down the equation to three runs from the final delivery.
Shaheen Shah Afridi, though, was run out as Pakistan went for a non-existent second run in an attempt to tie the scores, handing Zimbabwe a famous win.
This was after fast bowler Wasim (4/24) and Shadab (3/23) shared seven wickets between them to derail Zimbabwe after a fine start.
Haris Rauf, who was taken to the cleaners by Virat Kohli in the penultimate over in their last match, finished with 1 for 12 from his four overs.
Earlier, winning the toss and opting to bat first, Zimbabwe posted 130-8 from their 20 overs.
(With inputs from Agencies)
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