 The second ODI between Zimbabwe and Pakistan will take place at Harare
Sports Club in Harare on Sunday, September 11 at 7:00 IST or 12:30 GMT. This match
is extremely important for the both teams because if Pakistan win the match
they will win the series with one more match to go and winning this match Zimbabwe
could level the series 1-1.
Click for Live Score Card of Zimbabwe v Pakistan
It is very obvious that there will not be any surprise from Pakistan's selection
committee. They will stick to their winning combination. But Zimbabwe have no
option left. They cannot make too many changes as they have limitation of players
but with the same combination they could still beat Pakistan which they have shown
in the first ODI, they were almost cruising but could not control the momentum
in the last part of the game and were only short of 5 deciding runs in the last
over.
Earlier in the 1st ODI winning toss Pakistan's calm and quiet Skipper Misbah ul Haque decided to bat first on a good batting track but they could not
build a massive total to snatch the match away from the host but they managed
to get a defendable total of 247 runs losing 7 wickets. At the beginning of
their innings Pakistan lost their opener Imran Farhat in the first over of the
match but man of the match Younis Khan and Skipper Misbah rescued them. Younis
got 78 runs from 72 balls while Misbah's captain knock was 54 runs from 64 balls.
Shoaib Malik who returned after long time could not perform well.
Replying Pakistan's 247 runs Zimbabwe lost some early wickets then it was assumed
that Pakistan would wrap up the match very soon but Vusi Sibanda and Super performer
Brendan Taylor did not let this happen scoring 73 runs and 84 runs respectively.
At certain point Zimbabwe needed only 42 runs from 40 balls, it was very much
gettable and eventually it turned into 12 runs from the last over but they could
not make it. Junaid Khan the most expensive bowler of the day bowled an extraordinary
last over bowling five low full tosses sacrificing only 7 runs giving Pakistan
1-0 lead.
Prediction: Both Zimbabwe and Pakistan will be desperate to win the match but
at the end quality matters so it will be very difficult for Zimbabwe to beat Pakistan
as they will be trying to seal the series as early as possible.
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