Rawalpindi: Babar Azam scored an elegant 77 and Ifthikar Ahmed took a maiden five-wicket haul to set up Pakistan’s six-wicket win over Zimbabwe in the second one-day international here on Sunday.
The victory gave Pakistan the three-match series and it was also their eighth consecutive ODI win since last year.
Pakistan are playing their first ODI matches since October 2019 when they beat Sri Lanka at home.
Ifthikar returned amazing figures of 5 for 40 and after Pakistan faltered a bit in their chase of 207, skipper Babar came to the fore to achieve the target in 35.2 overs.
Except for a fighting 75 from 70 balls by Sean Williams and 36 from Brendon Taylor, none of the visiting batsmen were able to make an impact.
Opener Chari hit 25 but Zimbabwe kept on losing wickets regularly.
After left-arm spinner Imad Wasim went for 28 runs in two overs, Babar decided to bring on Ifthikar and he ended up with dream figures. Zimbabwe faced just 45.1 overs.
After a steady opening stand of 68 by Abid Ali (22) and Imam ul Haq, Pakistan stuttered a bit in the run chase, losing four wickets before Babar took his side home.
Debutant Haider Ali got a brisk 29 from 24 balls. Zimbabwe’s new-ball bowlers — Richard Ngarava, Carl Mumba and Blessing Muzarabani — were unable to trouble the batsmen on a good batting track. (PTI)
