Pakistan relax against Zimbabwe

History in cricket has been evident as to what would happen in case a strong team underestimates or relaxes against a so called weak team. However, Pakistan yesterday got back into the game when they saw Tantenda Taibu and Chigumbura advancing towards the target of 142. In the beginning, Pakistan had a slow start which remained to be slow by scoring runs at just over 7.00 runs an over. After Mohammed Hafeez scored 51 runs at the top of the innings, the next score worth mentioning was that of Umar Akmal who scored 28 runs that too under 6.00 runs an over which might be justified only in ODIs.

Looking at the scorecard, it is evident that the Pakistan was also touring Zimbabwe with an inexperienced team with only Shoaib Malik, having played more than 100 one day internationals. But, that would be more than enough against team like Zimbabwe. Had the same score been put up against some other team like India or England, the result would have been otherwise. On the otherhand, Zimbabwe had 2 batsmen in Tatenda Taibu and Chigumbura who have played more than 100 one dayers. That was just for the sake of trivia which has hardly got anything to do with the match result.

The Zimbabwean captain - Brendan Taylor stuck to the famous five formula when he had just five of his bowlers bowling at the Pakistani batsmen. Though Taylor had experimented with his bowlers, that would have hardly changed the match result. Out of those five bowlers, there was a pick of the bowlers when Kyle Jarvis returned with figures of 4-0-15-3 which was a bowling performance one of its kind. Another feat to be relished was Mohammed Hafeez' efforts of 3-0-11-3 which made him both the top scorer of the match and the most economical bowler as well at the same time.

All that mattered for Zimbabwe which was responsible in them losing to Pakistan was because their top order didn't just cope up with their middle order losing wickets at regular intervals. It is just understandable that Charles Coventry got bowled by Junad Khan with his experience not justifying that. Looking at the scorecard, I wish Mohammed Hafeez should have been given another over when he was the most economical bowler in terms of runs given as well when he gave away runs at a rate of 3.66 an over. If Yasir was to be tried, Misbah-Ul-Haq could have done it replacing Sohail Tanvir.

Rain fond of Zimbabwe

For the second time in the world T20 2010, Zimbabwe have lost out with the D-L method coming in. This does not mean that Zimbabwe would have won the game in case the D-L method had not been enforced. But, this would instead help the Zimbabwe team when it can take excuse saying that the loss was a result of rains pouring in and with it the D-L method being enforced to its cricket board. With that apart, the sole loser in this case would be New Zealand for having to compromise with a victory margin of only 7 runs.

It is really unfortunate that rain pours in those games involving minnows where in case of abandonment of the game and dividing of points that follows might just turn out to be a misfortune for the stronger like it happened to the West Indies in the 2003 world cup where their league stage match against Bangladesh got washed away due to rain and points were divided. This forced Kenya to move ahead of West Indies in the points table and with it to the super sixes of that world cup. Yesterday, had the match went on smoothly, New Zealand would have won the game by more than 7 runs.

It is just ridiculous that the shortest version of the game gets reduced to one fourth of its size due to rain. In the earlier encounter between sri Lanka and Zimbabwe, Zimbabwe were supposed to reach a certain target in only five overs foiling the Sri Lankan effort which took them to bat for nearly 20 overs. Zimbabwe, with ten wickets in hand could have easily reached the target luckily which did not happen. Yesterday, looking at the batting of the Zimbabwe team, the highest individual score happened to be a mere 21 runs from Tatenda Taibu at the top.

There were no sixes in the entire Zimbabwean innings and the last boundary came from the blades of Andy Blignaut who scored 8 runs. This was absolutely not expected from a team that has a history of playing test cricket for decades altogether. The Zimbabwean innings got over in just 15.1 overs which made New Zealand bat for 8 overs. Had the Kiwis batted first, they would have obviously played for 20 overs and the second innings would have lasted for only 3.1 overs. Whatsoever, rain has been found to play as a thirteenth player with extras being the twelfth man.