Zimbabwe on the cusp of history
The rain-hit opening ODI saw hosts Zimbabwe pick up a stunning win against Pakistan against the odds as they are now a win away from picking up a historic series win against Pakistan.
Ahead of the crucial second ODI between Zimbabwe and Pakistan, here’s our match preview and predictions
Zimbabwe were put into bat first and Salman Agha and Faisal Akram chipped in regularly with wickets as Pakistan restricted the hosts to 205 with Sean Williams, Sikandar Raza and some late runs from Richard Ngarava getting the hosts across 200. Williams, Raza will know that they should convert their starts into bigger scores while captain Craig Ervine fell to a soft dismissal and will be looking for a bigger score in the second game. With the ball though, is where the hosts came alive. Blessing Muzarabani was tight up front and was rewarded with two big wickets before Raza and Williams’ spin put Pakistan in a hole they couldn’t get out of. It was a clinical performance from the Zimbabwean bowlers, something that Ervine will hope more of in the upcoming few games.
For Pakistan, while their bowlers did the job, with Aamer Jamal and Mohammad Hasnain being miserly up front before Agha and Faisal Akram bowled out the hosts, Pakistan know that from 125/7, they should’ve closed out the innings much quicker. With the bat though, once the rain came down and it became a shortened game, Pakistan were already on the backfoot given their current squad structure’s issues with the shorter-formats. Chasing 141 in 21 overs was essentially a T20I game but Pakistan just crumbled with captain Mohammad Rizwan unable to get his squad home as Pakistan failed to get to 100 also, managing on 60 in their allotted overs. Rizwan and the management have a lot of work to do with the batting unit and he will be hoping for a better showing from his squad in the next game.
The second game will also be in Bulawayo, should there be rain again, the hosts will be in with a shot to pick up a historic ODI series win but count on the stronger Asian team to bounce back, should we get a full game.
Fantasy XI: Abdullah Shafique, Craig Ervine, Sean Williams, Joylord Gumbie Mohammad Rizwan, Sikandar Raza, Salman Agha, Haris Rauf, Mohammad Hasnain, Richard Ngarava, Faisal Akram
Venue: Bulawayo
Winners Prediction: Pakistan
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