An outstanding bowling performance from Zimbabwe helped them come out victorious in the low-scoring second T20I over Pakistan this Friday in Harare.
The win once again reignited hopes for a revival of Zimbabwe cricket as they inched past another major full-member country in recent years.
This was also Zimbabwe’s maiden victory in T20I cricket over Pakistan from 16 games since their first outing back in 2008. The African rivals scripted a turnaround after losing 15 games straight against their Asian opponents.
As it happened, outstanding spells from pacer Luke Jongwe (4/18) and spinner Ryan Burl (2/21) triggered the Pakistani downfall, helping Zimbabwe bundled out the visitors for just 99 in 19.5 overs and successfully defending their modest total of 118/9 in the first half.
Jongwe and Burl were ably supported at the task by Blessing Muzarabani (1/24), Richard Ngarava (1/10), Wesley Madhevere (0/16) and Wellington Masakadza (0/9), who forced Pakistan batters to take risks in order to score runs via some fine economical spells.
In what was a poor batting performance from Pakistan, skipper Babar Azam (41) and Danish Aziz (22) were the only ones to reach the 20-run mark. The visitors couldn’t breathe freely at the crease throughout the chase and eventually suffered a chastening defeat.
The first half of the contest, of course, had a theme completely in contrast to the second. Pakistan opted to bowl first after winning the toss and kept Zimbabwe to a score they looked favourites to go past.
Tinashe Kamunhukamwe (34) was the top scorer for Zimbabwe but even he went at a rate below run-a-ball in his knock. None of the other Zimbabwe batters reached the 20-run mark, with 18 from wicketkeeper-batsman Regis Chakabva being the second-highest individual score of the innings.
Mohammad Hasnain (2/19), Danish Aziz (2/29) had a couple of scalps each for Pakistan, while Faheem Ashraf (1/10), Arshad Iqbal (1/16), Haris Rauf (1/10) and Usman Qadir (1/28) contributed a wicket apiece. The visitors managed to keep a tight leash on run-scoring against the hosts.
Despite a fine bowling performance, Pakistan lost by a decent margin as their batters performed even worse than Zimbabwe. With the series levelled 1-1, the third and final T20I will be played on Sunday (April 25).
Brief scores
Zimbabwe 118/9 in 20 overs (Tinashe Kamunhukamwe 34, Regis Chakabva 18; Mohammad Hasnain 2/19, Danish Aziz 2/29) beat Pakistan 99 all-out in 19.5 overs (Babar Azam 41, Danish Aziz 22; Luke Jongwe 4/18, Ryan Burl 2/21) by 19 runs
