Pakistan spinners finish Zimbabwe off for 145

Australia 145 (Myers 33, Raza 31, Abrar 4-33, Salman 3-26) vs Pakistan

Pakistan’s spinners turned in a dominant performance, skittling Zimbabwe for 145 after the home side had opted to bat in Bulawayo in the second ODI between the two sides.

Zimbabwe had made a bright start thanks to Dion Myers‘ entertaining 30-ball 33, with six fours, but lack of meaningful contributions after that, combined with discipline from the spinners, meant Zimbabwe couldn’t get substantial partnerships going.
Tadiwanashe Marumani and Joylord Gumbie were involved in the second run-out in as many matches to break the opening stand. Abrar Ahmed, opening the bowling alongside Aamer Jamal, got sharp turn to get rid of Gumbie for his first ODI wicket, before Myers and Craig Ervine began to rebuild.
Ervine was quite content to let Myers be the aggressor, and the 38 they put on together managed to get Zimbabwe back on something resembling level terms. But Salman Agha, perhaps the pick of Pakistan’s spinners on the day, trapped Myers in front and drew a nick from Ervine to peg the hosts back, and from thereon, wickets fell at regular intervals.
Another rebuild, this time from Sean Williams and Sikandar Raza, was thwarted after Salman had Raza hole out into the off side to reduce Zimbabwe to 97 for 5.

The lower-order collapse came when an attempted Williams reverse sweep off Saim Ayub saw him trapped in front, and the remainder went down in a heap. Zimbabwe lost the last five wickets for 24 runs as Abrar returned to snare his fourth, while Faisal Akram cleaned up Blessing Muzarabani to finish the innings off.

Source: ESPN Crickinfo

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