Another poor start for Zim A against Pakistan A

Brandon Moyo

ZIMBABWE ‘A’ cricket team got off their second four-day match against Pakistan ‘A’ to a poor start as day one ended with the visitors trailing by 48 runs with nine wickets in hand at Mutare Sports Club, yesterday.

After being asked to bat first, Zimbabwe ‘A’ was bowled out for 163 runs in 56,4 overs with only two batters managing to put notable runs on the board. Pakistan Shaheens, as the visitors are known, went on to finish on 115/1 in 20 overs to have a grip on the match.

Losing an early wicket of last match’s hero, Joylord Gumbie for just seven runs, a 110-runs second wicket partnership between Tadiwanashe Marumani and Dion Myers was the only notable stand in Zimbabwe ‘A’s innings.

Marumani top scored for the team with 66 runs off 100 deliveries while Myers fell soon after reaching his half century on 50 runs from 108 balls. A batting collapse in the middle order saw Nyasha Mayavo’s 17 runs from 33 balls being the third highest scored from Zimbabwe ‘A’ and skipper Roy Kaia’s 20 ball 12 runs being the fourth highest. The four were the only Zimbabwean batters who managed to cross double figures.

Mohammad Ali starred with the ball for Pakistan ‘A’, finishing with the figures of 4/36 in 14,4 overs while Aamer Jamal and Mehran Mumtaz took three scalps each for 51 and 36 runs respectively in 12 and 16 overs.

After an unimpressive display with the bat, Zimbabwean bowlers only managed to get one wicket at stumps yesterday. The only wicket that fell was taken by Myers who had Pakistani captain, Imran Butt trapped in front for leg before wicket (lbw) on 27 runs from 33 balls. At the end of play, Muhammad Hurraira was on 60 runs from 79 balls while Omair Yousuf was on 19 runs from 34 deliveries. Myers, for his one wicket, bowled 4,2 overs and gave away 17 runs.

This is the last of the four-day matches after Pakistan ‘A’ convincingly won the first match played at Kwekwe Sports Club last week by eight wickets. After the completion of this match, action will move to Harare for the 50-over series pitting a Zimbabwe Select team against the tourists, with the first encounter pencilled in for Takashinga Cricket Club on May 17.

The rest of the matches will then be played at Harare Sports Club on May 19, 21, 23, 25 and 27 to round off a busy first five months of international cricket for Zimbabwe. Zimbabwe is using the series as part of their preparations for next month’s International Cricket Council (ICC) Men’s Cricket World Cup Qualifier 2023.

The 10-team global event is set to take place from 18 June to 9 July 2023 in Harare and Bulawayo and the series against Pakistan ‘A’ will be Zimbabwe’s last ahead of the crunch qualifiers.

Play resumes at 0930hrs for the second day. — @brandon_malvin