http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Pakistan-c755 v Zimbabwe – 1st T20 – Match Recap
Pakistan 198 v Zimbabwe 113 -
Pakistan won by 85 runs
Pakistan won the first T20 match in the two-match series against hosts http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Zimbabwe-c3045 by 85 runs at Harare Sports Club, after restricting the home side to a total of 113 runs.
Zimbabwe after winning the toss, put Pakistan into bat, aiming to grab wickets early on to put the tourists under pressure as they desperately wanted to begin the T20 series with a win after having faced defeat in the only Test of the tour followed by a
whitewash defeat in the three-match one-day series.
Coming out to bat, the Pakistan openers http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Asad-Shafiq-c46208 knew that they needed to give their side a commendable opening stand to make things easier for the remaining batsmen.
The two exhibited good form with the bat as they clobbered the Zimbabwean bowlers all around the park.
Pakistan raced to 74 runs before losing their first wicket on the penultimate delivery of the seventh over when http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Shafiq-c89281 after playing a knock of 38 runs off 23 deliveries was run-out.
It was then the time for the debutant http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Rameez-Raja-c2277 to walk in as he tried to forge a formidable partnership with opener Hafeez.
The two batsmen played the second highest partnership of the Pakistan innings by posting 73 runs as they ripped the Zimbabwean bowling apart and left the hosts in ruins.
It was then in the 15th over when Hafeez after knocking a handsome innings of 71 runs off 48 deliveries was caught by Charles Coventry in the deep off the bowling of http://www.senore.com/Cricket/CJ-Chibhabha-c1263. At the time of his departure Pakistan had managed to post 147
runs on the board for the loss of two wickets.
Raja then fell in the 17th over when he was given leg-before wicket on a delivery bowled by Ray Price. The batsman had managed to score 23 runs off 27 deliveries before falling to his demise.
http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Kyle-Malcolm-Jarvis-c71974 after playing a meagre knock of seven runs.
In the end, it was http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Sohail-Tanvir-c90665 who remained unbeaten on 22 and 17 runs as they helped the side post 198 runs on the board.
With Zimbabwe’s turn to bat, it was time for the hosts to put their T20 batting line-up to test against an intimidating Pakistan bowling arsenal.
However, they lost their first wicket in the second over when opener http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Sohail-Khan-c90647. At the time of this wicket the hosts
had only posted 12 runs on the board.
From Zimbabwe it was only Chibhabha who batted with some resilience as he scored 28 runs off 26 deliveries which was followed by an impressive performance from the lower-middle-order batsman http://www.senore.com/Cricket/CK-Coventry-c1267 as he clobbered 30 runs off 13 deliveries to become
the highest scorer from his team while the rest of the batsmen seemed ill-equipped to handle the Pakistan bowling as Zimbabwe could only congregate 113 runs in response to Pakistan’s tally.
Hafeez was named as the Man of the Match for his resounding innings.
The two teams will now face-off on September 18, 2011 in the second match of the series at Harare.
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