Daily Times

BULAWAYO: After sleepwalking to a series win, Pakistan blew life into a dull series courtesy Fakhar Zaman’s record-breaking double-century. This sparked tremendous interest momentarily on Friday afternoon in Pakistan. There’s little to suggest the joyride won’t continue on Sunday, but only a performance of Fakhar’s kind again can elicit the same level of interest. Zimbabwe have shown no fight whatsoever. If 67 all out wasn’t the nadir, they were blown away in the fourth ODI by 244 runs – Pakistan’s second-biggest ODI win in terms of runs. The batsmen have shown little resolve, and the bowlers have lacked consistency or potency. About the fielding? Less said, the better. Whatever can go wrong, has.

As such international fixtures are few and far between for Zimbabwe. Finances don’t allow them the luxury of staging multiple home series. That said, this year has been a bumper one, but even so, the hope with which they began the World Cup Qualifiers has long dissipated. The walloping in the T20I tri-series against Australia and Pakistan has spilled over, and there’s a pall of gloom around the state of cricket, as it has been for a better part of the last decade and a half. On Sunday, they can’t erase the pain of the home summer, but at least try and put up a fight and give the 500-odd faithful that turn up every match day whether or not there’s something to cheer about.

In the spotlight: Usman Khan went onto to play the entire tri-nation series and all four straight ODIs without aggravating any injury. This has been a longest streak for him in international cricket since he made his debut in 2013. He had been battling against injury, but every time he bounced back, some part of his body broke down again. He is back to full fitness now, and looks stronger than ever. He is the joint leading wicket taker with 9 at a strike rate of 16 in four games so far. He has made the most of his opportunities while Mohammad Amir and Hasan Ali are being rested, and will have an eye on nailing down a World Cup spot as soon as possible. Tarisai Musakanda was tipped to be captain for the tri-series and this bilateral contest against Pakistan. While in the end the job went to the vastly more experienced Hamilton Masakadza, Musakanda has shown glimpses of what he could offer Zimbabwe in the long term. Frustratingly for Zimbabwe, most of his contributions have been in the form of cameos; he has reached double figures in all but one of the last eight innings, but only once crossed 40. You could chalk it down to inexperience, but Zimbabwe desperately need a standout performance to have a chance of pushing Pakistan in this final game, and have something positive to take away from a nightmare series.

Team news: Zimbabwe don’t have too many options on the bench that are likely to make a difference, or they’d have tried them out by now. They have lost with each combination they tried, evry game more convincingly than the last. They may make one or two changes, but a change in the result would be one of the upsets of the year. Pakistan played two combinations across four games, and have played nearly every batting reserve on the bench other than Mohammad Hafeez and Haris Sohail – who had to return home after his daughter’s illness. Mohammad Nawaz is the only bowler unused throughout the ODIs. There is a chance Hafeez and Nawaz could be given a chance, but Pakistan are doing so well anything they do looks like it might come off

Squads:

Zimbabwe (possible): 1 Hamilton Masakadza (capt) 2 Tinashe Kamunhukamwe 3 Tarisai Musakanda 4 Ryan Murray (wk) 5 Peter Moor 6 Elton Chigumbura 7 Donald Tiripano 8 Liam Roche 9 Wellington Masakadza 10 Blessing Muzarbani 11 Tendai Chisoro

Pakistan (possible): 1 Fakhar Zaman, 2 Imam-ul-Haq, 3 Babar Azam, 4 Shoaib Malik/Mohammad Hafeez, 5 Asif Ali, 6 Sarfraz Ahmed (capt & wk), 7 Shadab Khan, 8 Faheem Ashraf, 9 Yasir Shah, 10 Junaid Khan/Mohammad Amir, 11 Usman Khan.

Published in Daily Times, July 22^nd 2018.