Pakistan v Zimbabwe: Only Test – Comprehensive Analysis – Part-3
http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Pakistan-c755 on day two of the only Test match of the series at the Queens Sports Club, Bulawayo in Zimbabwe on Friday, September 2, 2011.
The hosts played really well on a pitch which had some grass on it. They were put into bat by the Pakistan skipper Misbah-ul-Haq, who expected his seamers to bowl the opposition out cheaply.
The hosts’ opener http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Tino-Mawoyo-c2683 stood in the way of the Men in Green with his rock solid defence. He did get a couple of chances, but did not get carried away and capitalised on them.
Mawoyo top scored the innings and match with an unbeaten 163 runs with the help of 20 boundaries. There were a few other solid contributions in the innings, but none other batsman even managed to take his score past fifty.
Pakistan would not have expected to concede over 400 runs in the entire match, but they were stunned by the home team’s batsmen. However, the pitch was still very good for batting and the Men in Green had a chance to post a massive total.
The tourists had to bat the last session of play and they did a decent job despite losing opener http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Taufeeq-Umar-c92889 early. The left-handed player was unable to make an impression and managed just four runs in his short stay at the crease.
Umar became a victim of young fast bowler http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Kyle-Malcolm-Jarvis-c71974, who swung the ball into the batsman, getting him out leg-before-wicket (lbw). Although the batsman thought that the ball might have missed the stumps, he had to take the long walk back to the pavilion.
However, the innings was put on track by http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Azhar-Ali-c46890. The pair guided the team’s total above 100 until close of play on day two and continued to dominate the Zimbabwean bowlers when play began on the next day.
The Men in Green were in a commanding position courtesy a 188-run stand between Hafeez and Azhar for the second wicket. The former played aggressive cricket and completed a superb century. He got out after scoring 119 runs with the help of 19 fours and one
massive six.
Azhar failed to bring up his maiden Test ton, as he was dismissed after adding 75 runs to the total. He edged one ball to the hands of the wicketkeeper http://www.senore.com/Cricket/T-Taibu-c2630, who made no mistake behind the stumps. This wicket was debutant Greg Lamb’s first in the
longest version of the game.
Pakistan’s innings was then carried forward by their best players http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Misbah-ul-Haq-c1972. The experienced pair put together exactly 100 runs for the fourth wicket partnership before the latter got out for 66.
Youngster http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Umar-Akmal-c94595 failed to make most of the conditions and was sent back to the pavilion after collecting just 15 runs. His brother was the next man to be dismissed in the innings. He ran himself out after scoring an impressive 36 runs.
Younis got out after contributing 88 runs to the total with the help of five fours and one six. He would have been disappointed to miss out on a century.
However, http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Saeed-Ajmal-c87859 scored 28 runs towards the end of the innings, guiding the team to 466. The tourists got a first innings lead of 54 runs.
Zimbabwe’s Lamb picked up 3 wickets in the day, but the match seemed to be headed towards a draw.
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