LAHORE: Fine unbeaten century by Sikandar Raza and 99 by opener Chamu­norwa Chibhabha steered Zimbabwe to 268 for seven in 50 overs during the second One-day International at the Gaddafi Stadium on Friday.

Pakistan skipper Azhar Ali again won the toss but this time he decided to bowl first, perhaps to save his bowlers from getting affected by dew.

In the first match, Zim­babwe had piled up 334 in reply to Pakistan’s 375 and Azhar covered his bowlers’ mauling behind the dew factor.

Zimbabwe stand-in captain Hamilton Maskadza sent in Chibhabha instead of Sikandar Raza with Vusimuzi Sibanda to open the innings.

Chibhabha played aggressively while Sibanda remained defensive. They denied Pakistan’s new ball bowlers Mohammad Sami, Anwar Ali and Wahab Riaz any chance of getting the breakthrough.

The first wicket fell on 83 when off-spinner Hafeez with a flighted delivery clean bowled Sibanda in the 18th over. The batsman scored 13 runs on 47 deliveries.

Captain Masakadza came in with great responsibility on his shoulders in the absence of key batsman Chigumbura, who was not playing as the ICC had imposed a two-match ban on him for slow over-rate in the first ODI.

Chibhabha and Maskadza took the total to 100 in 22.1 overs.

Two overs later, Maskadza failed to read a delivery from leg-spinner Yasir Shah, who remained the most economic bowler with two wickets for 40 runs, edging a catch to Hafeez in the slips.

He scored 18 on 20 deliveries with the total being 114-2.

Chamu Chibhabha watches the ball after playing a shot.—AFP

Eight runs later, Yasir caught and bowled another dangerous batsman Sean Williams for five.

Finally, Chibhabha lost his wicket at nervous 99 and became the first Zimbabwe batsman to have lost his wicket at this stage. He was caught by wicket-keeper Sarfraz Ahmad off Shoaib Malik while trying to sweep but a slight snick went into the safe hands of Sarfraz.

Chibhabha cracked 11 fours, including four to Anwar Ali and three to Sami.

Both Sami and Anwar remained expensive for Pakistan. But another dangerous man Sikandar, who had put on 34 runs with Chibhabha stood firm to play a big knock.  

Sikandar completed his 50 off 56 balls with three fours and one six. He batted with five different batsmen. After collecting 34 runs with Chibhabha for the fourth wicket, he added 53 runs with next man Mutumbami and 29 with Charles Coventary.

Yasir Shah delivers the ball.—AFP

The batsman went on to complete his century off 84 deliveries in the last over of the innings.

Sikandar smashed eight boundaries and three sixes.

Sami was his biggest victim as he punished him with three boundaries and one six. He also slammed a six each to Wahab Riaz and Shoaib Malik, and hit four boundaries against Anwar Ali.

While Pakistan made no changes in the team, Zimbabwe brought in Chamunorwa Chibhabha, CK Coventary and AG Cremer in places of banned captain Elton Chigumbura, unfit Craig Ervine and Prosper Utseya.

Scoreboard

ZIMBABWE

V. Sibanda b Hafeez 13 C. Chibhabha c Ahmed b Malik 99 H. Masakadza c Hafeez b Shah 18 S. Williams c and b Shah 5 Sikandar Raza not out 100 R. Mutumbami c Shafiq b Anwar 7 C. Coventry c Ahmed b Riaz 10 G. Cremer c sub (Shehzad) b Riaz 2 T. Panyangara not out 4

EXTRAS: (LB-5, NB-1, W-4) 10

TOTAL (for seven wkts; 50 overs) 268

DID NOT BAT: T. Mupariwa, B. Vitori

FALL OF WKTS: 1-83 (Sibanda), 2-114 (Masakadza), 3-122 (Williams), 4-156 (Chibhabha), 5-209 (Mutumbami), 6-238 (Coventry), 7-258 (Cremer)

BOWLING: Sami 9-1-53-0 (w2), Anwar 9-0-55-1, Riaz 10-0-55-2 (1nb, 1w), Shah 10-0-40-2, Hafeez 6-0-33-1 (1w), Azam 3-0-14-0, Malik 3-0-13-1

PAKISTAN: Azhar Ali, Mohammad Hafeez, Shoaib Malik, Haris Sohail, Asad Shafiq, Sarfraz Ahmed, Anwer Ali, Hammad Azam, Yasir Shah, Wahab Riaz, Mohammad Sami

UMPIRES: Russell Tiffin (ZIM) and Shozab Raza (PAK)

TV UMPIRE: Ahmed Shahab (PAK)

MATCH REFEREE: Azhar Khan

Published in Dawn, May 30th, 2015

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