Recap: Ayub, Abrar, and Agha shine as Pakistan thrash Zimbabwe

BULAWAYO: Pakistan decisively beat Zimbabwe in the second ODI of the series on Tuesday, behind an incredible maiden ODI century from Sam Ayub, which came after some stellar bowling performances from Abrar Ahmed and Salman Agha.

ABRAR AHMED

The ODI debutant, Abrar Ahmed, took his maiden wicket in the format in the fourth over of the match. He sent off Joylord Gumbie on a delivery that sharply spun past the inside edge of the bat, sending the bails flying as Gumbie fell to his knees. 

His next wicket would come in the 28th over, and contrastingly to his dismissal of Gumbie, Brandon Mavuta was done in by the lack of spin on Abrar’s delivery. Mavuta tried to strike the delivery to the leg side, but only his left pad made contact with the ball 

Soon after in the 30th over, Richard Ngrava was dismissed after he swung big, hoping ot send the ball down the ground, but the deluvery spun enough to get past the inside edge before it hit the stumps. 

Abrar’s last wicket would send off Brian Bennett, who pulled the ball straight to the hands of Kamran Ghulam at short midwicket. 

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SALMAN AGHA

Salman Agha took three wickets of his own, beginning in the 13th over with Dion Myers, who put up the highest total for Zimbabwe with 33 runs off 30 deliveries. A faster delivery from Agha that took a sharp turn forced Myers on the defensive, as he tried to play the ball off to the leg side. He failed, and the ball popped up off his pad, a fact the entire Pakistan team made sure the umpire knew. 

Two overs later, he would take his second, dismissing the Zimbabwe skipper, Craig Ervine. Agha’s delivery would find the edge of Ervine’s bat before settling in the gloves of Pakistan’s skipper, Mohammed Rizwan. 

In the 21st over, Sikandar Raza’s innings would come to an end, and the other star bowler of the day, Abrar, would help dismiss him. After gaining some confidence from hitting two sixes, Raza went for another big shot, but ended up hitting the ball right to Abrar who made the catch. 

SAIM AYUB

Saim Ayub got it done on the batting side for Pakistan, as he scored his maiden ODI century in his fifth ever match in the format. It was an incredible performance in which he scored 113 runs off 62 balls. He blasted an incredible seventeen fours, three of which came on consecutive balls in the 14th over. The last four of his salvo ended the match in emphatic fashion in the 19th over. Ayub also smashed three sixes on his way to leading Pakistan to victory with 190 balls to spare. Abdullah Shafique aided him by scoring 32 runs off 48 deliveries. 

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