Zimbabwe salvage pride with 2-wicket consolation win vs Pakistan in 3rd T20

Young all-rounder Tinotenda Maposa made a memorable Twenty20 debut and earned Zimbabwe a sensational two-wicket consolation win in the third and final game of the series on Thursday.

Zimbabwe’s batters stumbled for the third successive time in the series and were in danger of a clean sweep before 21-year-old Maposa smashed left-arm fast bowler Jahandad Khan for a four and a six in the final over as the home team reached 133-8 with a ball to spare. Maposa remained unbeaten on 12 off 4 fours.

Pakistan, which made four changes after taking an unassailable 2-0 lead in the series, was earlier restricted to 132-7 after the visitors won the toss and elected to bat.

Tall fast bowler Blessing Muzarabani picked up two wickets inside the power play while Maposa struck with his medium pace and removed Tayyab Tahir (21) just when Pakistan looked to rebuild the innings.

Captain Salman Ali Agha held one end up with run-a-ball 32 and contributed 30 runs with Qasim Akram (20), who fell in the 12th over to a splendid catch by Dion Myers at backward point.

Zimbabwe didn’t allow Salman to accelerate through its pace and spin in the death overs with the Pakistan skipper getting run-out in a mix-up with Arafat Minhas, who remained unbeaten on 22.

Zimbabwe had lost eight wickets for 31 in the first game to lose by 57 runs and then fell to a new low when it got bowled out for its lowest T20 score of 57 in the second game and lost the match by 10 wickets.

But in the absence of rested fast bowler Haris Rauf, Pakistan’s second string pacers struggled in the powerplay as Brian Bennett (43) and Tadiwanashe Marumani (15) clobbered 40 runs off the first 19 balls.

Bennettt was hard on Rauf’s replacement Mohammad Hasnain as he smacked four boundaries against the pacer in one over which went for 19 runs.

Marumani fell to off-spinner Salman in the fourth over when he spooned at catch at square leg before Bennett holed out in the deep against the left-arm wrist spinner Sufiyan Muqeem, who grabbed five wickets for just three runs in the second match.

Associated Press

Brief scores

Pakistan 132-7 in 20 overs (Salman Agha 32, Arafat Minhas 22, Tayyab Tahir 21, Qasim Akram 20; Blessing Muzarabani 2-25) vs Zimbabwe 133-8 in 19.5 overs (Brian Bennett 43, Sikandar Raza 19; Abbas Afridi 3-24, Jahandad Khan 2-30)

Result: Zimbabwe won by two wickets

Series: Pakistan won 2-1