Spinner Imad Wasim rescued Pakistan from an unconvincing batting display as his 4-11 set up a 13-run win over Zimbabwe on Sunday in the first of two Twenty20 internationals.
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Pakistan visit in a reciprocal agreement after Zimbabwe became the first test team to play in Pakistan in six years back in May.
Meanwhile, another former Test cricketer Jalaluddin said that the selectors and the team management should have waited till the World T20 in India next year to unleash Imran as a surprise weapon.
Captain Elton Chigumbura is targeting a good start, hoping that a win would give his charges momentum going into the ODI series.
However, Pakistan’s resistance was far from over as Wasim (19) and Mohammad Rizwan (33 not-out) notched up their team’s highest partnership stand of 46 runs for the sixth wicket.
Later on, three One-day global matches between the two sides will be played on October 1, 3 and 5 at the same venue. Looking at the bowling attack, it was Imad Wasim’s deadly spinning spell that helped him claim four victims in the Zimbabwe’s top batting-order and earned him the Man of the Match award.
That concludes our coverage of the best individual performances in cricket in the past week.
“We were supposed to chase and get that 137 for a win despite how well they (Pakistan) bowled, we were supposed to get that”.
“We just lost too many wickets at the end”, Chigumbura reflected.
While the likes of Shoaib Malik, Mohammad Hafeez and Umar Akmal were in the runs in Sri Lanka in July, Afridi has endured a lull with the bat which he will seek to get over.
Pakistan will make a few alterations to their squad after the T-20 series ahead of the ODI series, but Zimbabwe has named a 16-men squad that will participate in the two versions. He had both openers Ahmed Shehzad (17) and Mukhtar Ahmed (4) back to the pavilion in a sensational third over before Sohaib Maqsood (6) followed suit.
The Pakistani Captain Shahid Afridi have asked the batsmen to take up their responsibility and play sensibly so that they could put a decent and much defendable score on the board.
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Zimbabwe: Elton Chigumbura (capt), Sikandar Raza Butt, Chamunorwa Chibhabha, Graeme Cremer, Craig Ervine, Luke Jongwe, Neville Madziva, Hamilton Masakadza, Christopher Mpofu, Richmond Mutumbami (wk), Taurai Muzarabani, John Nyumbu, Tinashe Panyangara, Prosper Utseya, Malcolm Waller, Sean Williams.
