Pakistan thrashes Zimbabwe in T20 tri-series opener

New Delhi, [India] July 01 (ANI): Pakistani cricket team thrashed Zimbabwe by 74 runs in the first T20 tri-series opener.
Pakistan's Fakhar Zaman who scored 61, along with contributions from Shoaib Malik and Asif Ali lead the team to glory by scoring 182 for 4.
According to ESPN Cric info, Zimbabwe could never come close to maintaining a stable run rate since wickets fell like a pack of cards.
Zimbabwe's debutant Tarisai Musakanda who scored a decent 43 was the star of the team.
Zimbabwe captain Hamilton Masakadza put Pakistan at the toss, in order to take advantage of the wicket flattening out later in the match.
ESPN Cric info further mentioned that it wasn't the worst start for the African team since Kyle Jarvis, picked up Mohammad Hafeez early on.
Pakistan who didn't get the explosive start were 78 for 3.
Jarvis, the best pacer in the African team conceded nine off his first two overs, however, according to ESPN Cric info, midway through the innings, in the 14th over, he dived forward at long-on to catch and dismiss Fakhar.
But he broke his thumb only to be driven out of the contest.
As soon as Pakistan started to settle in, Malik's scoring strike rate peaked around 150, while Fakhar gave him the needed support.
Further according to ESPN Cric info, it did seem at one point of time that the game had reached a pivotal point when Tendai Chisoro castled Fakhar with a quicker delivery, but Zimbabwe did the mistake of considering Asif Ali as less of a threat.
Asif smashed four sixes and thereby scoring 41 runs in 21-balls, and helped Pakistan add 61 runs in five overs.
In the first six overs of batting, Zimbabwe was meek in their approach and they suffered a loss of Chamu Chibhabha in the first over to Mohammad Nawaz. The only chance Zimbabwe had of coming close to a challenging the Powerplay.
But at the end of six overs, Zimbabwe were 27 for 2 - partly, because of Pakistan's impressive bowling line up.
The match after six overs became irrelevant as no good target was being expected from the African batting line up.
Solomon Mire and Musakanda played some good shots too but only for a shorter period of time.
Chigumbura came in and smashed a couple of boundaries but was taken out by Pakistan's Hasan Ali, with an impeccable off-cutter.
The last four wickets fell down while Zimbabwe could only muster up six runs against it. (ANI)