Riaz was named Man of the Match for excelling with both the bat and ball
Image courtesy of: ESPNcricinfo
Pakistan left-arm pace bowler Wahab Riaz smashed an unbeaten 54 and took four wickets to lead his side to a 20-run win over Zimbabwe in Brisbane.
Riaz was well supported by captain Misbah-ul-Haq, who scored 73, and fellow left-arm seamer Mohammad Irfan, who also picked up four wickets.
However, Zimbabwe wicketkeeper-batsman Brendan Taylor deserves some credit for his valiant knock of 50.
Ul-Haq would have been regretting his decision to bat first after Nasir Jamshed and Ahmed Shehzad were dismissed in quick succession.
Ul-Haq and Haris Sohail stabilised the innings with a 54-run partnership before Sohail was caught by Sean Williams at short midwicket off the bowling of Sikandar Raza for 27.
Ul-Haq and Umar Akmal kept the runs flowing with a 69-run partnership, during which ul-Haq brought up his half-century, before Akmal was clean bowled by Williams for 33.
Williams struck again just two balls later when he cleaned up Shahid Afridi for a duck.
Shoaib Maqsood managed to make 28 runs before he was caught and bowled by Tawanda Mupariwa.
Ul-Haq went on to score 73 off 121 balls, which included three boundaries, before he was caught by Williams at long-on off the bowling of Tendai Chatara.
Ul-Haq hit three boundaries during his knock of 73
Image courtesy of: ESPNcricinfo
Thanks to Riaz, who scored 54 off 46 balls, which included six boundaries and a six, Pakistan finished on 235/7 off their 50 overs.
Chatara was the pick of the bowlers with three wickets, while Williams snapped up two and Raza and Mupariwa chipped in with one wicket apiece.
Chasing 236 to win, Zimbabwe got off to a poor start as opening batsman Chamu Chibhabha was caught by Sohail at second slip off the bowling of Irfan for nine runs.
Raza only made eight runs before he was also caught by Sohail at second slip off the bowling of Irfan.
Hamilton Masakadza and Taylor stabilised the innings with a 52-run partnership before Masakadza was caught by ul-Haq at mid-off off the bowling of Irfan for 29.
Taylor and Sean Williams kept the runs flowing with a 54-run partnership, during which Taylor registered his half-century, before he was caught behind off the bowling of Riaz.
Taylor’s excellent knock of 50 came off 72 balls and included six boundaries.
Taylor made a gutsy 50
Image courtesy of: ESPNcricinfo
Williams went on to score 33 runs before he was caught by Shehzad at backward point off the bowling of Rahat Ali.
Solomon Mire made eight runs before he was caught behind off the bowling of Irfan.
Craig Ervine mustered 14 runs before he was caught behind off the bowling of Riaz.
Riaz struck again just two balls later when Mupariwa was caught behind for a duck.
Despite injuring himself while fielding, Zimbabwe captain Elton Chigumbura and Tinashe Panyangara put together a spirited 47-run partnership before Panyangara was run out by Akmal for 10 runs.
Zimbabwe were bowled out for 215 the very next delivery when Chigumbura was caught behind for 35.
Riaz and Irfan took four wickets each, while Ali claimed one.
Irfan finished with a career-best 4-30 off 10 overs
Image courtesy of: ESPNcricinfo
Chigumbura was gutted to have lost the match, and said: “I’m still to go for a scan, I will know tomorrow morning. Today the bowling was much better, thought we executed well, but we gave away too many extras, if you are being critical about our bowling. It’s disappointing to lose a game like this when we felt we had a good chance of winning. Hamilton getting out was the turning point. We have to learn from this. We haven’t had one guy scoring a hundred and carrying us through. That’s where we need to improve.”
Ul-Haq was pleased with his team’s performance, and said: “It was really tough because it was make or break for us. We were in a must-win situation. You can’t believe how happy we are, because we would be out of the tournament if we lost this game. Pitch wasn’t easy, it was holding up, it was a bit two-paced. When I went there I found it really difficult to rotate the strike. I was thinking if we could get to 250-260 it would be really challenging because we had five regular bowlers. We were 15-20 runs short after losing those wickets, but the kind of quality the bowlers showed, the fielding was also good. Credit should be given to the fast bowlers, the way they bowled today. When there is extra bounce, Irfan is the kind of bowler, if somebody hasn’t faced him before, it can be really difficult, especially in Australian conditions. We need to really work hard because we need to improve our batting. Other teams are getting to 300, 280, 290. We need to start well and capitalise.”
Riaz was named Man of the Match, and said: “The discussion [with Misbah] was to play all 50 overs and if we take chances, we will do that in the last three or four overs, and rotate the strike till then. The team management are working really hard with me, they believe I can do something with my batting. Thanks to them and thanks to Almighty Allah. [At] the start, the ball was not coming on to the bat, not going through quickly, but we had to work hard, I think the way the fast bowlers and Shahid Afridi bowled, credit has to go to us. We know there were not many runs on the board and Irfan bowled really well. I want to dedicate this trophy to my dad and my mum. They will be really happy.”