LAHORE: A brilliant captain’s knock by Azhar Ali and resolute batting by Haris Sohail and Shoaib Malik guided Pakistan to a six-wicket victory over Zimbabwe in the second One-Day International at the Gaddafi Stadium on Friday.

Pakistan thus took an unassailable 2-0 lead in the three-match ODI series.

Facing a modest target of 269, Pakistan romped home in style when Haris completed his fifty with a cracking boundary off paceman Timashe Panyangara and then stole two runs off the next delivery.

Haris and Shoaib came together after the dismissal of captain Azhar Ali, who scored his second ODI century. Pakistan’s score at the time was 209 in 40.1 overs.

Haris and Shoaib took just 7.1 overs to score the remaining 60 runs needed for victory, the latter making 36 runs off only 20 balls.

Shoaib hit the lone six of the innings, besides cracking four boundaries as Pakistan raced to the target. He also hit back-to-back boundaries off Brian Vitori in the 46th over.

With Friday’s victory, Pakistan managed to maintain their unbeaten record against Zimbabwe.

For his brilliant 102, Azhar was declared the man of the match.

Earlier, Azhar Ali opened the innings with Sarfraz Ahmad. Regular opener Muhammad Hafeez, who was injured earlier in the match, came to the crease after Sarfraz was adjudged LBW off Chibhabha. The opening stand was worth 46 in 8.4 overs.

Sarfraz made 22 off the 28 deliveries he faced, hitting one boundary. Hafeez, who scored 86 in the first ODI, could only contribute 15 off 24 balls.

Azhar and Asad Shafiq then proceeded to steady the innings.

After taking over as skipper of the one-day side, Azhar seems to be following in the footsteps of his predecessor Misbah-ul-Haq as he has turned into a dependable batsman. So far he has led Pakistan in five ODIs, scoring 72, 36, 101, 79 and now 102.

Published in Dawn, May 30th, 2015

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