Another one-day final, another disappointment

The Zimbabwe Independent
24 November 1998



ANOTHER one-day final, another disappointment. Strictly speaking, the third one-day international against Pakistan was not a final, but both teams had won a match each and the winner took the series. Pakistan turned in a crushing performance to take both.

Despite the disappointing conclusion, this series was another step forward for the Zimbabwe team. Their victory in the second match was actually the first time they had beaten Pakistan in that country in three tours, and the first time they had gone into the final match of an away series against any country with the series evenly balanced.

In the first match at Guiranwala, Zimbabwe, put in to bat, were soon underway after some loose bowling by the Pakistani seamers. The Zimbabwe camp decided to alter their batting order; despite his fine record opening the batting in one-day cricket, captain Alistair Campbell moved down to number six and instead Neil Johnson opened with Grant Flower.

A good general rule is; ``If is isn't broken, don't fix it,'' but in fact Johnson, used to opening in one-day cricket during his years with Natal, filled Campbell's boots well on this tour. He hit a fine 74 off 98 balls, and the opening partnership recorded 75 runs in 14 overs.

The middle-order batting was disappointing after such a good start though, and Campbell later admitted that. ``We made some 40 or 50 runs short but our bowlers made them work hard,'' he said.

Campbell himself was the only one of the later batsmen to succeed, scoring 42. The spinners Saqlain Mustaq (4/35) and Shahid Afridi (3/45) did most of the damage.

Zimbabwe fought hard, but the Pakistani captain Aamer Sohail led the way with 91, recovering his form after a lean spell. Big hitter Shahid Afridi was out for 2, so disappointing a section of the crowd that they started throwing stones on to the field, causing play to be held up for six minutes.

Yousuf Youhana, as he did regularly when touring Zimbabwe, steadied the middle order after the fifth wicket fell at 145, and his unbeaten 55 helped to see his team home.

The local Press, so often highly critical of their own team, were on this occasion full of praise for Pakistan's superior all-round cricket and teamwork.

The roles were reversed in the second one-day as Zimbabwe played the better all-round cricket, dominating the match from the start. It was their good fortune to win the toss and put Pakistan in to bat on a pitch still containing early-morning moisture.

All the Zimbabwean bowlers did a fine job, especially Heath Streak who took three wickets. Pakistan lost their first two wickets for 9 runs, and were 116 for seven at one stage.

The innings was steadied by Hasan Raza, who hit the headlines two years ago by making his Test debut on Zimbabwe's previous tour to Pakistan at the official age of 14. He played a mature, patient innings of 46 this time, to be last out. A Pakistani record ninth-wicket partnership of 57 with Saqlain (29) took the score past 200.

Zimbabwe were never in trouble on what was now a good batting pitch against rather poor Pakistani bowling. It was to be Neil Johnson's day again as he scored Zimbabwe's first century against Pakistan in one-day cricket. His 103 came off 120 balls, with 13 fours, and he was only dismissed when victory was assured.

Grant Flower (42) and Murray Goodwin (30) also played disciplined innings, and the second wicket did not fall until the score was 161. It was a fine all-round team effort by Zimbabwe.

Putting Pakistan in to bat for the final match proved to be a miscalculation, as the Zimbabwean bowlers bowled poorly and the Pakistani batsmen were in superb form.

Saeed Anwar led the way with 73, but the highlight was a magnificent 133 off just 102 balls by Ijaz Ahmed. He put all the bowlers to the sword with the exception of Andrew Whittall, the only bowler to escape with some respect, conceding only 38 runs in his 10 overs.

Facing such a daunting total, Zimbabwe's batsmen had to come out swinging from the start. They were not helped by the return of Waqar Younis after injury, and he soon dismissed Grant Flower for 11.

Andy Flower played a cool innings of 61, obviously realising as his partners fell that victory was now out of the question and the main aim could only be to reduce the deficit by as much as possible.

It was a disappointing result to a match that had begun with such hope, but nevertheless, as in Sharjah, Zimbabwe had done better than ever before.


Source: The Zimbabwe Independent Online