In a humdinger of a clash, Zimbabwe shock former champions Pakistan in their T20 World Cup's Super-12 tie on Thursday (October 27).
Opting to bat after winning the toss, Zimbabwe scored 130/8. Shan Masood top-scored with 44 off 38 balls, but Pakistan fell short in the end as they failed to score the three runs required for victory in the last ball of the match.
Sikandar Raza was Zimbabwe's most successful bowler with 3/25, while Brad Evans picked up two wickets for 25 runs.
Sean Williams was the highest scorer for Zimbabwe with 31 off 28 balls.
A few Zimbabwe batters got starts, but could not translate them into substantial scores.
Mohammad Wasim was the most successful bowler for Pakistan, returning with fine figures of 4/24 from his four overs, and leg-spinner Shadab Khan was also excellent with the ball and picked up 3/23 in his quota of four overs.
Meanwhile, Sikandar Raza, who was adjudged the Player of the Match for his exceptional spell, turned emotional and was at loss for words while expressing his euphoria post Zimbabwe's thrilling win.
“I am lost for words, my mouth's dry probably because of the emotions I am going through at the moment. I can't tell you how proud I'm of this bunch of boys. The way our seamers started at the top, was just unbelievable and the way we backed it up in the field and the way we kept believing, really lost for words. When we were coming to Australia, I said to my captain (Ervine), If you become Man of the Match, pick any watch from the catalogue and I'll buy you that. But if I win Man of the Match (award), you're going to buy me one. I was reminding him that he owes me three watches now. I was excited today, and I watched this clip by Ricky Ponting earlier in the morning, and that motivated me to come up with this performance. I would like to thank Ricky Ponting for that,” Sikandar Raza said in the post match presentation.
It was Pakistan's second defeat in as many matches after the four-wicket loss to arch-rivals India in another thrilling contest.
For Zimbabwe, it was their first win from two matches. The African side had earlier split points with South Africa following a washout.
For the second time in the tournament, star Pakistani openers -- skipper Babar Azam and Mohammad Rizwan -- failed to provide a good start.
Babar looked tentative before he was squared up by a seaming fuller length delivery from Evans.
An over later, Rizwan played on to the stumps a Muzarabani delivery while trying to cut a ball, which was too close to his body.
Iftikhar Ahmed, who scored a brisk fifty against India, didn't last long either, leaving Pakistan reeling at 36 for three in 7.4 overs.
But Shan Masood held one end up and together with Shadab Khan, shared 52 runs for the fourth wicket to take Pakistan forward.
Leg-spinning all-rounder Raza had other plans, as he brought Zimbabwe back into the contest with three quick wickets, including two in the 14th over.
Raza first initiated a mishit from Shadab as he was holed out at long-off and then sent back Haider Ali for a duck.
Raza's best moment came in his next over when he got the wicket of Masood, who was brilliantly stumped by Chakabva, as Pakistan slumped to 94 for six in 15.1 overs.
But Nawaz (22) kept Pakistan in the hunt in the company of Wasim and brought down the equation to 11 in the last over.
Nawaz started by picking up three runs and then clobbered a slower delivery from Evans over his head for a maximum.
Evans bounced back brilliantly and dismissed Nawaz in the penultimate ball to bring down the equation to three runs from the final delivery.
