Pakistan v Zimbabwe: Only Test – Comprehensive Analysis – Part-5
Zimbabwe were in deep trouble against Pakistan on the final day’s play of the only Test match of the series at the Queens Sports Club, Bulawayo in Zimbabwe on Monday, September 5, 2011.
The hosts started day five with eight wickets down for 135 runs on the board. Wicketkeeper batsman http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Kyle-Malcolm-Jarvis-c71974 was not out on 20.
The African team would have been in a much worse situation, as they had lost eight wickets for 69 runs on day four. Their task would have been to take a lead of at-least 125 runs, which could have tested the Pakistan’s batting line-up.
However, things did not turn out to be good for the home team, as they lost their last two wickets after scoring just six runs to the overnight score.
Taibu and Jarvis put together 66 runs for the ninth wicket partnership before the former gave his wicket away. He failed to add to his overnight score of 58 and got out playing a lose stroke.
The veteran keeper batsman chased a short and wide delivery outside the off-stump and just managed to edge the ball to the hands off Pakistan’s keeper http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Adnan-Akmal-c42042.
Taibu was trying to steer the ball to the third man in order to take a single, but this cost him his wicket. He played well though, top scoring the innings with 58 runs, striking five fours and one six.
http://www.senore.com/Cricket/CB-Mpofu-c1219 was the final wicket to fall in the innings. He got out for a duck, as Zimbabwe’s innings was wrapped up on 141. Jarvis remained unbeaten on 25 with the help of four boundaries.
http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Mohammad-Hafeez-c76898 picked up four wickets apiece in the innings. The former had a very good debut game, ending up with figures of 8/103 in the match.
The tourists needed 88 runs for victory and almost had three full sessions of play left. The pitch was offering some assistance to the spinners, but the target was not much to trouble the batting side.
The Men in Green opened their innings with http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Taufeeq-Umar-c92889 and Hafeez. Both would have liked to finish the game on their own, but they were unable to do so.
Taufeeq failed to make an impression in the match, as he got out in single figures in both his outings. He managed just eight runs this time around and edged an away swinging delivery from Jarvis to the hands of the wicketkeeper.
Hafeez was in an attacking mood, as he wanted to finish things off quickly. The flamboyant opener collected 38 runs off 44 balls with the help of six fours and one six. He was bowled round his legs, as he attempted to sweep the ball towards mid-wicket.
http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Azhar-Ali-c46890 started off steadily, but attempted to play aggressively once he settled down. The ploy did not work for the first-drop player, as he top-edged one ball to the hands of the fielder after adding 22 runs to the total.
Veteran batsman http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Misbah-ul-Haq-c1972 guided the team to victory, scoring unbeaten 14 and 6 respectively.
http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Zimbabwe-c3045’s Ray Price picked up a couple of wickets in the innings, suggesting that he might have caused a few problems for the opposition had his team posted a challenging target.
The visitor’s all-rounder Hafeez was named player of the match for his terrific performance in the match.
Tags: