Vusumuzi Dube
Brandon Moyo, Sports Reporter
A JOYLORD Gumbie second innings century was not enough to help Zimbabwe ‘A’ salvage something from the first four-day match against Pakistan ‘A’ as they suffered an eight wickets defeat in a game that ended yesterday at Kwekwe Sports Club.
The Roy Kaia captained Zimbabwean side won the toss and elected to field first and the visitors went on to declare their first innings on 521/3 in 115,3 overs on the second day before going to bowl out the hosts for 225 runs in 76,3 overs. After being asked to follow on, Zimbabwe went on to finish on 401 all out in 104,4 overs courtesy of a Gumbie heroic ton. Setting Pakistan a target of 106, the visitors finished on 111/2 to take a lead in the two match series.
In the first innings with the ball, there was nothing to show from the Zimbabwean bowlers as they were made to toil by the second wicket partnership of Muhammad Hurraira and Omair Yousuf. Hurraira fell for 178 runs off 188 balls while Yousuf remained undefeated on 250 runs after facing 342 balls as they helped set a huge first innings score.
Hussain Talat also managed to reach a milestone as he remained not out on 51 runs from 90 balls. The Zimbabwean bowlers who managed to take the three wickets that fell in the innings were the fast bowling trio of Faraz Akram, Victor Nyauchi and Tanaka Chivanga. In their response with the bat, the batters did not step up as they were made to follow on.
Zimbabwe’s top run scorer was Dion Myers who made 56 runs from 92 deliveries while Kaia fell three runs short of his half century on 47 runs off 117 balls. Mehran Mumtaz starred with the ball for Pakistan, taking a five wicket haul to finish with the figures of 5/47 in 17,3 overs. Mohammad Ali took two scalps for 56 runs while Shahnawaz Dahani took one wicket.
After being asked to follow on in the second innings, Zimbabwe managed to set their opponents a target after a good batting display. The opening partnership of Gumbie and Tanunurwa Makoni notched up a 100 run stand for the first wicket before Makoni fell for 57 runs after facing 109 balls. Gumbie went on to finish as the highest run scorer in the innings with a well batted 115 runs from 202 balls. Chivanga also managed to get his half ton as he finished on 58 runs from 47 balls while Akram fell two runs short of his half century on 48 runs as they took a lead going into Pakistan’s second innings.
Mumtaz once again was the hero with the ball for the visitors as he took yet another fifer, finishing with the figures of 6/110 to finish the match with 11 wickets. Ali and Mir Hamza took two wickets each to help round up the hosts’ innings. Defending what was a rather below par score, Zimbabwean bowlers could not restrict the Pakistanis who went on to chase down the target in the 18th over. Pakistani skipper, Imran Butt saw his team through with an unbeaten 56 runs from 52 balls. The only two wickets that fell were taken by Brandon Mavuta and Wessly Madhevere.
The second four-day game is scheduled to take place from 10-13 May in Mutare before action moves 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. – Follow on Twitter @brandon_malvin
Online Reporter