Zimbabwe vs Pakistan 2nd T20 Match 2015


  • Pakistan
    136/6
    20 Overs
    Umar Akmal
    38(28)
    Sohaib Maqsood
    26(25)
    Luke Jongwe
    24/2
    Tinashe Panyan..
    27/2
  • Zimbabwe
    121/7
    20 Overs
    Sean Williams
    40(36)
    Sikandar Raza
    36(36)
    Mohammad Irfan
    25/2
    Imran Khan Jnr
    35/2

The second match of the T20 series was held at the HARARE sports club on 29th September 2015 and Pakistani again trumped the home team by 15 runs to clinch the series. Batting first, Pakistan rode on contributions from AKMAL to score 136 runs in 20 over. Zimbabwe could muster only 121 in response. The main lynchpins of the attack were Pakistani bowlers who snuffed out half the batting lineup of Zimbabwe by 5th over. Due to the continuously rising asking rate, Zimbabwe lost the match and series. CHAMU CHIBHABHA was adjudged LBW in spite of the ball pitching outside of the leg stump. MOHAMMAD IRFAN was ably handled by MASAKZADA who carved out some lusty strokes off the bowler.

Sean Williams along with SIKANDAR RAZA tried to steady the ship with a partnership of 60 runs as they deployed reverse sweep in an effective manner. As RAZA tried to switch gears, he was cleaned by a slower delivery from Imran khan. The batsmen left Zimbabwe 53 runs away from the target with 23 deliveries to spare. CHIGUMBURA briefly raised hope as he bludgeoned two sixes off IMRAN in the 17th over of the match but it was not enough.  KHAN meticulously bowled his cutters and plucked 4 wickets in the innings.

As far as Pakistani batsmen were concerned, the openers failed to fire and team was reeling at 72/4. It was a precarious situation but rear guard action from AKMAL saved the day for Pakistan. He was quite prolific in creating gaps for singles and started his onslaught with couple of lusty shots over the boundary. JONGWE and PANYANGARA accounted for SHOAIB MALLICK and SHEHZAAD AHMED respectively as they failed to read the slower deliveries. Although MALLICK and MAKSOOD tried to recover the inning with a partnership but the two were separated by GRAEME CREMER who forced SHOAIB to drag ball to the stumps. In spite of a spirited fight back from Zimbabwe, Pakistan won the match and Umar AKMAL was awarded the man of the match due to quick fire 38 runs off 28 balls.