Young debutant Maposa earns Zimbabwe 2-wicket consolation win over Pakistan in 3rd T20

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Young all-rounder Tinotenda Maposa made a memorable Twenty20 debut and earned Zimbabwe a sensational two-wicket consolation win in the third and final game of the series on Thursday. Zimbabwe's batters stumbled for the third successive time in the series and were in danger of a clean sweep before 21-year-old Maposa smashed left-arm fast bowler Jahandad Khan for a four and a six in the final over as the home team reached 133-8 with a ball to spare. Maposa remained unbeaten on 12 off 4 fours. Pakistan, which made four changes after taking an unassailable 2-0 lead in the series, was earlier restricted to 132-7 after the visitors won the toss and elected to bat.

Tall fast bowler Blessing Muzarabani picked up two wickets inside the power play while Maposa struck with his medium pace and removed Tayyab Tahir (21) just when Pakistan looked to rebuild the innings. Captain Salman Ali Agha held one end up with run-a-ball 32 and contributed 30 runs with Qasim Akram (20), who fell in the 12th over to a splendid catch by Dion Myers at backward point. Zimbabwe didn't allow Salman to accelerate through its pace and spin in the death overs with the Pakistan skipper getting run-out in a mix-up with Arafat Minhas, who remained unbeaten on 22. Zimbabwe had lost eight wickets for 31 in the first game to lose by 57 runs and then fell to a new low when it got bowled out for its lowest T20 score of 57 in the second game and lost the match by 10 wickets.

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But in the absence of rested fast bowler Haris Rauf, Pakistan's second string pacers struggled in the powerplay as Brian Bennett (43) and Tadiwanashe Marumani (15) clobbered 40 runs off the first 19 balls. Bennettt was hard on Rauf's replacement Mohammad Hasnain as he smacked four boundaries against the pacer in one over which went for 19 runs. Marumani fell to off-spinner Salman in the fourth over when he spooned at catch at square leg before Bennett holed out in the deep against the left-arm wrist spinner Sufiyan Muqeem, who grabbed five wickets for just three runs in the second match. Muqeem (1-19) kept up the pressure and bowled his final over maiden as Zimbabwe lost six wickets for 47 runs with fast bowler Abbas Afridi claiming 3-24.

With 12 needed in the final over, Maposa struck Jahandad for a boundary to fine leg of the first ball before smacking the fast bowler over the mid-wicket for a big six of the next ball. Jahandad couldn't run out Maposa on the third ball as he missed the stumps at the non-striker's end. With two needed off three balls Tashinga Musekiwa holed out at wide mid-on but Richard Ngarava took the home team over the line by driving the seamer to mid-on for victory. Pakistan also beat Zimbabwe by 2-1 in the preceding ODI series and will now travel to South Africa for three Twenty20s, three ODIs and two test matches, starting with the first T20 next Tuesday.

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