The tri-series between Pakistan, Australia and Zimbabwe began with Pakistan taking on hosts Zimbabwe and thrashing them in the process. After winning the toss and deciding to bowl first, Zimbabwe bowlers were taken to the cleaners by the ranked one T20I team in the world after some initial hiccups.

Mohammad Hafeez went out first after making just 7 runs. Hussain Talat couldn’t conjure more than 10 runs while Sarfraz Ahmed made 16 from 15 balls before going back to the pavilion.

In the meantime, Fakhar Zaman scored 61 runs from 40 balls and was beautifully supported by Shoaib Malik’s 37 from 24 balls and Asif Ali’s blistering cameo of 41 from 21 balls.

Malik himself reached a new record as the Pakistan batsman became the third player to breach the 2000-run milestone in T20Is. Malik now has 2026 runs from 92 innings with only Martin Guptill and Brendon McCullum ahead of him with 2271 runs and 2140 runs respectively.

Tendai Chisoro was the pick of the bowlers with two wickets from his four overs while giving away only 28 runs. Kyle Jarvis was also impressive as he gave away only 9 runs from his two overs while also taking but injured himself during fielding.

In response, Zimbabwe never really found their feet as only Soloman Mire, Tarisai Musakanda and Elton Chigumbura were the only ones that reached double figures. Mire made 27 while Musakanda scored 43 and Chigumbura managed 14 runs.

Pakistan bowlers bowled beautifully as a team as Mohammad Nawaz, Usman Khan, Hasan Ali and Mohammad Hafeez took two wickets each while Shadab Khan finished with a scalp himself.

 

Scores:

PAK 182/4 (20 Overs)