Langa Mabena
On Tuesday, the Zimbabwean cricket team let Bulawayo’s exhilarating crowd down, but today, they picked them right back up.
In a nerve-shredding encounter, Zimbabwe controlled, won, threw away and eventually stole a roller-coaster of a game off the penultimate delivery.
A slap from Richard Ngarava that thudded into the stumps at the non-striker’s end, a hesitant jitter, and a scampered single was what it took to seal a two-wicket win that will feel much more significant than the mere consolation it will be recorded as in a 2-1 series defeat against Pakistan.
In pursuit of 133 after a insipid batting performance from Pakistan, Brian Bennett and Tadiwanashe Marumani appeared to have made this game routine when Zimbabwe blazed to 50 in five overs.
But with a middle order as fragile as Zimbabwe’s no game is truly done, and even when the hosts sat pretty at 73 for 1 with more than half the overs the spare, Pakistan knew they were in with a shot, not least because of a Sufiyan Muqeem-shaped trump card who ran rampant through the middle overs once more. Within a five-over spell, 73 for 1 became 94 for 5, with Muqeem piling on the pressure as Abbas Afridi cleaned up from the other end. With four overs to go, the run rate was pushing 12. — Cricinfo
Online Reporter