In today's match, Pakistani batsmen gave a decent target of 165 runs. The pitch was not batting friendly. So after Pakistan scored 150+, I was sure that Pakistan was going to win today's match. USman Khan and Tayyab Tahir both scored 39 runs. Irfan Khan played a brilliant innings of 27 runs off 15 balls.
After Zimbabwe lost the wicket of Tadiwanashe Marumani for 77 runs, no other batsman could stay at the crease for long. Sufiyan Muqeem and Abrar Ahmed took three wickets each. Zimbabwe's innings was stopped at 108 runs. Pakistan was able to win the match by 57 runs.
Pakistan could not provide a big target. The pitch was not batting friendly. Zimbabwe still had a chance to win. Chasing a target of 165 runs, Zimbabwe were able to bat very well at the beginning. Tadiwanashe Marumani and Sikandar Raza were able to bat very responsibly. Tadiwanashe Marumani was able to score 33 runs from 20 balls and Sikandar Raza was able to score 39 runs from 28 balls.
Zimbabwe's batsmen were able to score 70 runs in the first 7 overs. But even then, Zimbabwe's batting started to slow down. If any of the batsmen in the middle order of Zimbabwe had been able to bat with some responsibility, then perhaps Zimbabwe could have won the match. But none of the middle order batsmen could have batted well.
Zimbabwe were playing well from the start and at one point I think they were close to winning because when they managed to score around 70 runs, they still had the match under control but after the fall of the third wicket, a rush of wickets started which is why Zimbabwe could not win the match. One of the big problems of small teams is that they cannot control their emotions and this is where their big defeat comes. If they had kept the wickets and scored runs per over and played a little aggressively towards the end, it would not have been difficult to win this match. But this team is very dependent on Sikandar Raza. If he gets out, it doesn't take long for the rest of them to fall wickets.
Today's match was a chance like the 1st ODI match but Zimbabwe wasted that chance. Now I believe that Zimbabwe may not be able to win any match against Pakistan again in this series.