Captain Misbah along with Shahid Afridi hold the ODI series winning trophy [Photo]
In the process Zimbabwe lost a rare chance to win an ODI series against a top cricket team.
Yesterday's third ODI seemed rather one sided when Zimbabwe winning the toss elected to field. Although their bowlers restricted the visting Pakistan team for 260 runs, it was the Pakistani bowlers too who did not allow the hosts to pose any meaningful threat to Pakistan in winning the match. Zimbabwe lost by 108 runs.
The match took place on the backdrop of a payments dispute that threatened a Zimbabwe boycott. The players put the distraction aside to take the field, but the batsmen were nowhere close to competitive despite encouraging signs even in Thursday's defeat.
This time, Pakistani batsmen played responsibly, except of course Shahid Afridi who was out for seven while playing a lousy loose shot on a Chatara ball and was caught by wicket keeper Taylor. Misbah and Shehzad were the best scoring batsmen who scored 67 and 54 respectively. Chatara bagged three wickets for 48.
Coming to bat, the hosts had a rough time at the hands of Pakistani bowlers and only Waller could reach 50s while all other could not score beyond 30. Hafeez, Saeed Ajmal and Abdur Rehman took two wickets each which tiltted the balnce in Pakistan's favour. And the hosts chasing a target of 261 were rerstricted to just 152 runs and lost by 108 runs.
Misbah-ul-Haq (Pakistan) was declared as the player of the match while Mohammad Hafeez (Pakistan) was declared as the player of the series.
Pakistan and Zimbabwe now play two tests starting 3rd and 10th September.
Misbah-ul-Haq (Pakistan) was declared as the player of the match while Mohammad Hafeez (Pakistan) was declared as the player of the series.
Pakistan and Zimbabwe now play two tests starting 3rd and 10th September.
