ZIMBABWE claimed their first big scalp of the T20 World Cup Super 12 courtesy of a one-run victory over Pakistan in a nervy finish at Perth Stadium on Thursday.
After winning the toss, Zimbabwe decided to bat first and got off to a flyer, with Wessly Madhevere and captain Craig Ervine taking the attack to Pakistan.
The duo went after Shaheen Shah Afridi in the first over, harvesting 14 runs.
Zimbabwe scored 47 runs in their batting power play, the only blemish being the loss of their two openers, Madhevere and Ervine.
The Chevrons had no answer to Haris Rauf as he brought his team back into contention with superb seam bowling at pace, making him virtually unplayable.
Zimbabwe tried to go after Mohammad Wasim and Shadab, which proved their undoing as the two bowlers shared seven wickets for 47 runs.
Sean Williams top scored for the Southern Africa nation with 31 runs from 28 balls as they cantered to 130 runs at the halfway stage.
For Zimbabwe to pull off one of the biggest heists in T20 World Cups, they had to bowl well.
Richard Ngarava and Blessing Muzarabani gave nothing away in the power play and were duly rewarded with the wickets of Babar Azam and Mohammad Rizwan.
Rizwan was bowled through the gate by Muzarabani, and Babar was caught at point by Ryan Burl off Bradley Evans.
Zimbabwe were on top after the Pakistan power play with 28 runs for the loss of two wickets.
After that, it was a ding-dong affair, with both sides winning different passages of play.
The nail-biting affair was going to the wire.
Chevrons kept taking wickets at regular intervals, but a 52-run partnership between Shadab and Shan Masood for the fourth wicket threatened to take the game away from Zimbabwe.
However, player-of-the-match Sikandar Raza took his first wicket claiming the scalp of Shadab for 17 runs from 14 balls.
Haider Ali was out next ball plumb lbw, and suddenly Raza was on a hattrick and Zimbabwe on top.
Zimbabwe knew that Pakistan had a slight advantage as long as Masood was still there.
Raza fired a quicker ball down the left-hander’s leg side, and Masood missed it, lost his balance as Chakabva collected and whipped the bails off, and the batsman was out stumped.
At that point, Pakistan required 37 runs from 27 balls with four wickets in hand.
It was still anybody’s game.
The equation came down to Pakistan requiring 11 runs from six balls, and the responsibility to defend those runs fell on the shoulders of 25-year-old Evans.
His first ball was hit for three runs by Nawaz.
The second was dispatched for a boundary. Pakistan were cruising.
Just as Pakistan seemed to be cruising, Evans took a wicket with his fifth ball to give the match another twist, with three runs required from the last ball.
Shaheen faced the last ball, and Regis Chakabva ran him out as he attempted a second run to try and force a Super Over, but that was not to be sparking wild celebrations within the Zimbabwe camp.
In Harare, at the Centurion Pub, which is hosting World Cup watch parties, there was a commotion when the fans ran onto the Harare Sports Club field in celebration.
At one point, there was no life in the Zimbabwe team, but after 40 overs, it was all hugs and kisses. The Chevrons had gotten out of jail with Evans, a new hero.
