http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Zimbabwe-c3045 – Only Test Match – 5th Day’s Summary
Zimbabwe 412 & 141 v Pakistan 466 & 88 -
Pakistan won by 7 wickets
Pakistan won the only Test against hosts Zimbabwe at Queens Sports Club, Bulawayo on the final day of the match by seven wickets after successfully chasing a target of 88 runs that was mustered by the Zimbabweans.
Earlier in the day, after ending the fourth day with 135 runs on the board for the loss of eight wickets, Zimbabwe began the day’s proceedings hoping to bat long enough to save the match.
However, the Pakistan bowlers who had been on a rampage since the fourth day were in no mood to let an imminent win slip from their hands as they came out aiming to grab the remaining wickets as soon as possible to give the batsmen enough time to successfully
chase a target.
With wicketkeeper/batsman http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Kyle-Malcolm-Jarvis-c71974 on 20 runs, it was crucial for the home side to depend on these two batsmen to forge an impossibly defiant stand against the tourists in a bid to prevent defeat
in front of home crowd.
After beating http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Bangladesh-c747 in a recently concluded home series, Zimbabwe obviously were not hoping to face a beating by Pakistan. Nonetheless, they had an uphill task in front of them as there was a whole day and Pakistan were raring to have a go at the batsmen
right from the first ball.
Disaster struck early as on the last delivery of the first over in the day, Taibu without adding a run to his overnight tally was caught behind by Pakistan wicketkeeper http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Aizaz-Cheema-c961.
This was surely not what the hosts wanted to face, however, it was too late and the in form batsman and pretty much the last hope for the Zimbabweans was back in the pavilion.
It was now up to Jarvis and http://www.senore.com/Cricket/CB-Mpofu-c1219 to get the side through, however, the game was over in the third over of the day, when Cheema struck again by taking the wicket of Mpofu who found his way back to the pavilion on nil after he was also caught by Akmal
off a thick edge.
Jarvis stayed unbeaten on 25 runs off 81 deliveries as Zimbabwe posted an extremely meagre tally for Pakistan to chase.
The tourists should have reached the target easily, however, they lost three wickets on their way to victory, nonetheless, the Men in Green won the match as opener http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Younis-Khan-c98325 contributed 38, 22 and 14 runs in their
team’s triumph.
Hafeez was named as the Man of the Match for his impressive performance with the bat as he played a mammoth innings of 119 runs in the first innings and then was the highest scorer from his side in the second innings.
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