In the following over, Nawaz came out and hit a six off Evans to maintain the pace even if his charge was stopped. Pakistan won the first match of the tri-series by five wickets at Rawalpindi, despite Zimbabwe’s impressive performance. Pakistan was in serious trouble at 54/4 when chasing 148, but their middle order came through to save them and get them a victory with four balls remaining.
With two wickets in one over during the PowerPlay, Brad Evans placed pressure on the home team. Sahibzada Farhan’s defence was pierced by Evans after Pakistan had only scored 27 runs in the first four overs of contention. After that, he caught Babar Azam LBW for a duck after three balls. To exacerbate the situation, Pakistan was lowered to 31/3 on the powerplay and lost Salman Agha in the very next over. Then, on his comeback, Graeme Cremer further damaged them by taking a wicket off the third ball, giving Zimbabwe total control at the midway point.
After that, Usman Khan teamed up with Fakhar Zaman to bring the pursuit back to life. Fakhar broke the shackles with a six after struggling at first, and then he followed it up with another six and four from Cremer to gradually re-enter the game.
Nawaz then hit consecutive boundaries to complete the scoring after Usman Khan and Nawaz both relieved the pressure with crucial runs.
Earlier in the evening, Zimbabwe was unable to build on the momentum their openers had created. Tadiwanashe Marumani gradually gained confidence after Brian Bennett opened the game with three boundaries in the first two overs. After the first six overs, Zimbabwe jumped to 59/0, with Bennett in particular continuing to hit boundaries and Marumani hitting a six in the last over of the powerplay. Nawaz had to throw the ball completely for Pakistan to end the collaboration. However, Zimbabwe appeared poised to post nearly 180 after Brendan Taylor arrived and immediately began dealing with boundaries.
Taylor’s run out, though, ended the inning. Suddenly, things had altered after Bennett, who was well-set, was also sacked for 49 in a tactful manner. When Nawaz struck again in his last over to dismiss Ryan Burl, Pakistan gained complete control, and Zimbabwe fell apart quickly with frequent wickets. As Zimbabwe dropped from 72/0 to 128/8, Sikandar Raza was left stranded at one end as the others gave up in a pathetic manner. Despite their bowlers’ outstanding performance, they were unable to reach 147/8 after Raza hit a pair of boundaries and a six in the last two overs.
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