Rampant Pakistan breeze into tri-series final

Pakistan put in a commanding performance on Sunday (November 23) to thrash Zimbabwe by 69 runs and breeze into the tri-series final. After posting a strong 195/5, Pakistan bowled Zimbabwe out for just 126 to pick up their third straight win in the tri-series.

Opting to bat first, Pakistan got off to a fine start with Sahibzada Farhan continuing from where he left off in the previous game. After he fetched a boundary each in the first two overs, Saim Ayub hammered back-to-back sixes as Pakistan raced to 29/0. Brad Evans came back strong though as Ayub then pulled one straight to deep square leg. While Babar Azam took time to get going, Farhan rounded off the powerplay with two sixes in an over from Richard Ngarava. Babar, who was batting on 19 off 23 at one point, finally broke the shackles with a boundary before finding the fence off consecutive deliveries against Sikandar Raza.

Farhan brought up his second fifty in two days and at the other end, Babar also reached his milestone after registering scores of 0 & 16 in the first two games. Pakistan set themselves up for a big finish at 126/1 after 15 overs. Even though Raza bagged the big wicket of Farhan which was then followed by Faheem Ashraf's run out, Babar turned on the heat with a flurry of boundaries. At one point, he ended up smashing three fours and a six in the space of five deliveries before Raza finally brought an end to his whirlwind knock. While they appeared to lose their momentum right at the end, Fakhar Zaman thrilled the crowd with a 25-run final over that powered Pakistan past the 190-run mark.

Once the big total was on the board, the bowlers then made things easier. Naseem Shah struck in the very first over and Brian Bennett was sent packing in the next over by Mohammad Wasim Jr. Brendan Taylor failed to make a mark as Zimbabwe were reduced to 43/3 by the end of the powerplay. And once Raza mistimed one off Mohammad Nawaz to perish for 23, it was curtains for Zimbabwe as Pakistan ran through that lower middle order.

From 59/3, Zimbabwe were reduced to 82/9 real quick as wickets just tumbled in rapid fashion. The highlight of this collapse was Usman Tariq's hat-trick as he dismissed Tony Munyonga, Tashinga Musekiwa and Wellington Masakadza off successive deliveries before picking up another wicket off the last ball of his spell to finish with a four-fer. Ryan Burl then delayed the inevitable with a 44-run stand for the last wicket. Burl unleashed a flurry of boundaries to help himself to a half-century and eventually score more than 50% of his team's runs. His unbeaten 67 kept his side in the hunt for a place in the final as it softened the blow on Zimbabwe's NRR.

Brief scores: Pakistan 195/5 in 20 overs (Babar Azam 74, Sahibzada Farhan 63; Sikandar Raza 2/39) beat Zimbabwe 126 in 19 overs (Ryan Burl 67*; Usman Tariq 4/18, Mohammad Nawaz 2/21) by 69 runs