A blistering 42 from 35 balls from Brian Bennett steered Zimbabwe to a nervy 2-wicket consolation victory against Pakistan in the third T20I played yesterday at Queens Sports Club in Bulawayo.
With the series already lost, Bennett and Tadiwanashe Marumani bossed the powerplay scoring 56 runs, in pursuit of a victory target of 133 runs.
Marumani was the first to go becoming Agha Salman first victim but with Bennett in the form he was in, Zimbabwe were still in with a chance.
With a half-century in sight, Sufiyan Muqeem bowled a half-tracker and Bennett’s eyes lit up but could only find the hands of Tayyab Tahir in the deep, to perish seven short of a well played fifty.
At 73-2 after 9.4 overs, Zimbabwe were ahead on the run-rate and at six an over that would have seen the hosts home comfortably.
Zimbabwe’s lack of match awareness reared its ugly head again, Dion Myers needlessly gave away his wicket trying to clear cow corner but could only find Arafat Minhas off the bowling of Abbas Afridi.
Captain Sikandar Raza took the game deep as wickets of Wessly Madhevere and Ryan Burl.
The run rate started going up as Tashinga Musekiwa couldn’t find the release shot he wanted against the spinners.
The game that looked like it was going Zimbabwe’s way looked like it was slipping away from the Chevrons when Raza perished for 19 from 20 balls in the penultimate over.
However hometown favourite Tinotenda Maposa had other ideas on his T20I debut.
Zimbabwe required 12 runs from the final over and Maposa hit the first ball he faced for a boundary down the legside.
He the produced the shot of the day, when he clubbed for six a Jahandad Khan back of a length delivery over midwicket to send the crowd at Queens into a delirium.
A new star has been born.
Zimbabwe scampered to victory with one ball to spare and their performance on Tuesday were all but forgotten.
The game was set up by another good bowling performance by the Chevrons bowlers led by Blessing Muzarabani 2 for 25 and other bowlers chipping in with others four bowlers taking one wicket apiece to restrict the visitors to a below par score.
