Pakistan played its first T20 international cricket match against Zimbabwe on 27 September 2015. Pakistan won the toss & elected to bat first and made 136 runs & gave the target of 137 runs to the opponent team. This was the first T20 match of the two match T20 series, which was played on Sunday at Harare Sports Club.
Pakistan won the match easily as Imad Wasim showed the all round performance in the first T20 match. He made 19 runs on mere 12 balls. Pakistan did not bat well and its players lost their wickets early, which hindered Pakistan to score huge runs to set the target. Shoaib Malik scored 35 runs, which was the highest total from Pakistan side and Muhammad Rizwan scored 33 runs. From Zimbabwean side, Chamu Chibhabha took three wickets after giving away only 18 runs in just three overs.
From Pakistan Side, Imad Wasim took four wickets, which is the best performance from this young player in the T20 international matches. Zimbabwe captain, Elton Chigumbura scored 31 runs and now other player could impress with his bat & all of the team was out on 123 runs. Hence, Pakistan won this first T20 match of the two T20 matches series by 13 runs and led the series by 1-0.
Shahid Afridi: He is the captain of Pakistan T20 team and he shows his pleasure in these words. ‘Today, the batting is collapsed and we failed to score a big total to give the handsome total to the opponent team to chase. The wicket was good and our bowlers bowled well and according to the field. Imad is good replacement of Saeed Ajmal and he can impress others. Imran Khan is new induction and he impressed the team a lot and he bowled well in the last over, in which he gave only 2 runs.’
Imad Wasim: He was pleased with his performance and said, ‘Today was good day for me as I touch anything, which turned into gold. I batted according to the situation and thank God, I was succeeded. The captain and coach told me to bowl wicket to wicket, which was good strategy and I did my job well.’
Elton Chigumbura: ‘Our batting could not perform well and we lost wickets consistently so we failed to chase this target, which was not difficult one. If we had one or two good partnerships, then we could carry the day. Wicket was slow and it was quite easy to get the target.’
Teams
Pakistan:
Shahid Afridi (C), Umar Akmal, Muhammad Rizwan (w), Ahmed Shahzad, Wahab Riaz, Mukhtar Ahmed, Imran Khan Junior, Imad wasim, Sohail Tanveer, Shoaib Malik, Sohaib Maqsood,
Zimbabwe:
Elton Chigumbura (C), Sean Williams, Hamilton Masakadza, Craig Ervine, Chamu Chibhabha, Sikandar Raza, Mutumbami (W), Prosper Utseya, Greame Cremer, Panyangara, Jongwe.