Make them Sir jokes all you want, Ravindra Jadeja is arising again and again this Indian home season

The Report by Sidharth Monga20-Apr-2013
Scorecard and ball-by-ball details
Michael Hussey’s catch turned Knight Riders’ innings around•BCCI

Smart stats

• Michael Hussey’s 51-ball 40 was the slowest score of 40 or more in the IPL’s history

• Jacques Kallis’ diamond duck was a novel experience for him, having never suffered one in international cricket or previously in the IPL

• Rajat Bhatia’s 10-ball 1 was the second slowest innings in IPL (non-ducks)

• Ravindra Jadeja’s strike-rate today was 257.14; the other Super Kings’ batsmen scored at a combined rate of 81.89.

Make them Sir jokes all you want, Ravindra Jadeja is arising again and again this Indian home season. After he took three wickets – mostly poor batting from Kolkata Knight Riders – to reduce the hosts to 119, he came out to see his team-mates had messed the paltry chase so much that they now needed 40 off 27. Just like that, he smoked sixes down the ground, fours through cover, and on a sluggish track where almost every batsman apart from Gautam Gambhir struggled, Jadeja took Super Kings home with an unbeaten 36 off 14. There were five balls still to go.In his recent column, Gambhir spoke of how the turbulence inside resulting from how his side snatched defeat from the jaws of victory in their previous match was much stronger than the choppy flight he had. His team went on to prove him wrong, showing turbulence much greater than Gambhir can imagine, chaos much greater than the honking cars in Kolkata can create. Kolkata Knight Riders were going swimmingly at 46 for 0 when Gambhir fell, and they all managed enough panic over the next 10 overs to throw their wickets away to be reduced to 91 for 8. They fought hard from there, but it wasn’t enough.Super Kings will claim, and not without reason, that the panic was initiated by their superb fielding, but it wouldn’t justify the ordinariness of Knight Riders’ batting and the diabolicalness of their running. First the superb fielding, though.In this clash of the last year’s finalists, Knight Riders went without the man who won them that final, Manvinder Bisla. The struggling Yusuf Pathan opened in Bisla’s absence, and on a slow and low pitch he could put behind the nightmares of the bouncers from Mohali. The two cut and pulled well, but when Gambhir didn’t bother keeping the cut in the sixth over down, Michael Hussey dived to his left at square third man boundary to pull off a special catch.Two balls later, S Badrinath matched Hussey’s effort. Yusuf had hit to the right of Badrinath at point, and Jacques Kallis called him through for a single. Badrinath swooped on it, fielded it one-handed, and threw off-balance to knock the only stump visible to him. Kallis gone without facing a ball. He has never scored a diamond duck in international cricket. Soon Eoin Morgan failed to read a Dwayne Bravio slower ball, and holed out.That brought together the two men that lost Knight Riders their previous match: Yusuf and Manoj Tiwary. The association lasted two balls as Tiwary ran Yusuf out. Bravo could claim about as much credit as Tiwary. He bowled, saw the ball pushed towards deep midwicket, and hared two-thirds of the way to the boundary, slid and fumbled. That fumble meant Tiwary finally went for the second after he had left Yusuf stranded mid-pitch. Bravo recovered, and even when on his knees he let rip a bullet throw to Dhoni. Knight Riders 55 for 4 after eight overs.After that it seemed there would be a run-out every second ball, but what followed was poor shots and in no time four more were back. Sunil Narine slogged two sixes, and gave himself and Sachithra Senanayake something to bowl at. They were helped by the failed Super Kings experiment of opening with R Ashwin. The visitors then found themselves in a rut they couldn’t get out of. The slow pitch made it difficult to build momentum. Then came Jadeja.He danced down to L Balaji and lofted him straight into the sightscreen. Hussey, who fought hard for his 40 off 49, fell, leaving 31 to get off 19. Jadeja proceeded to pull Balaji over short fine leg for another four. Knight Riders had an ace up their sleeve with one over from Narine to go, but Jadeja took his revenge and slogged him over long-on for six the first time he faced him today. If this blow wasn’t what did it, Yusuf dropped Jadeja at backward square leg to finally lose it for Knight Riders. Jadeja finished it off with another high six off the first ball of the last over.

Chris Dent scored a maiden one-day century to help Gloucestershire to an exciting seven-run victory over Glamorgan in a high-scoring Group C clash

19-May-2013
ScorecardChris Dent’s previous highest score in one-day cricket was 36•Getty Images

Chris Dent scored a maiden one-day century to help Gloucestershire to an exciting seven-run victory over Glamorgan in a high-scoring Group C clash.Dent’s 151 not out led Gloucestershire to 288 for 5 from their 40 overs at the SWALEC Stadium, before Mark Wallace (118 not out) and Graham Wagg (54) saw Glamorgan fall just short.On an easy-paced pitch Dent was able to help Gloucestershire punish Glamorgan’s attack after being put into bat by Marcus North. The visitors lost Hamish Marshall early on but they were nevertheless not hanging about with Dean Cosker’s first two overs conceded 19 runs.Gloucestershire lost captain Michael Klinger for 40 from 47 balls, caught off a leading edge at cover, but the 100 came up in only the 16th over with Dent bringing up his 50 off 39 balls. Former England paceman Simon Jones, playing his first game of the season, did peg Gloucestershire back briefly by bowling a maiden to Dent, whose previous List A best was just 36.Gloucestershire reached the halfway stage in a good position at 120 for 2 but they lost Alex Gidman to Will Bragg, who claimed his first wicket in one-day cricket. Dent, though, continued his assault on the Glamorgan bowlers and brought up his century off 89 balls, including 10 fours and two sixes.In the final 10 overs Gloucestershire racked up 110 runs, with Dent remaining instrumental as he put on 73 with James Fuller in just 24 balls.Glamorgan made a disastrous start to their run-chase with Bragg out for a duck, trapped lbw to James Fuller’s second ball, and then having Chris Cooke removed by the same bowler for 15. Glamorgan’s hopes looked dashed when North was run out for 5 with a direct hit from Benny Howell, leaving the hosts on 27 for 3.But Wallace and Jim Allenby launched a recovery, with a slog sweep for six by the latter bringing up the Glamorgan 100 in the 17th over. Wallace shared in partnerships of 95 with Allenby in 12.3 overs and then 67 with Murray Goodwin. But it was the Wallace-Wagg alliance that so nearly brought Glamorgan victory.The pair put on 82 in 8.4 overs to bring the prospect of victory ever closer. Glamorgan had needed 100 off the final 10 overs, but that was brought down to 60 off six overs and then 31 off three overs as Wallace reached 100 off 98 balls and Wagg struck three big sixes.But with 18 needed off eight balls, the pressure mounted on Glamorgan and Wagg holed out to Marshall at long-on off Fuller. And the 17 required from the final over proved too much for Wallace and Will Owen as Gloucestershire held on for the win.

Former Kerala captain and junior national selector M Balan Pandit has died in Ernakulam, Kerala on June 5, aged 86

ESPNcricinfo staff05-Jun-2013Former Kerala captain and junior national selector M Balan Pandit has died in Ernakulam, Kerala on June 5, aged 86.A wicketkeeper-batsman, Pandit began playing first-class cricket in 1946 and represented Kathiawar, Kerala and Travancore-Cochin. In a career spanning 46 first-class matches, Pandit scored 2,317 runs including five hundreds at an average of 29.70.He was a wicketkeeper for Kathiawar in the match against Maharashtra, in December 1948, when Bhausaheb Nimbalkar scored an unbeaten 443 runs, the highest first-class score by an Indian batsman.In a Ranji Trophy match in 1959 against Andhra, his 14th for Kerala, Pandit scored an unbeaten 262, which was the record individual score for Kerala before Sreekumar Nair hit a triple century against Services in 2007.As a wicketkeeper, he completed 35 catches and three stumpings during his first-class career.As an administrator, Pandit was a member of India’s junior selection committee and was also the chairman of Kerala’s selection committee. He also served as vice-president of Kerala Cricket Association.

A disciplined bowling performance from Scotland helped them to a 35-run win over Kenya in Aberdeen

ESPNcricinfo staff04-Jul-2013
Scorecard and ball-by-ball detailsA disciplined bowling performance from Scotland helped them defend a middling score of 114 as they bowled out Kenya for 78 in the first T20 of the two-match series in Aberdeen. Scotland won the toss and elected to bat, with the openers putting on 40 for the first wicket. But Kenya fought back with a clump of wickets, two of them in the same over – 14th, bowled by Tanmay Mishra – reducing Scotland to 69 for 5 in the 15th.Preston Mommsen, the Scotland captain, and Moneeb Iqbal briefly resisted with a sixth-wicket partnership of 35. Scotland eventually reached 113 for 6 in their 20 overs, with Mishra returning with his best T20 figures of 3 for 25.Kenya started inauspiciously, losing a flurry of wickets to be reduced to 29 for 5 in the ninth over. Every one of Scotland’s bowlers picked up a wicket as only three Kenyan batsman were able to register double-digit scores. Kenya’s innings was wrapped up off the penultimate delivery of the 19th over to give Scotland a convincing 35-run win. Gordon Goudie was the pick of the bowlers with figures of 3 for 22.

West Indies and Pakistan have given us tough, hard-fought cricket along with the usual doses of excitement when we least expected them, setting it up for one, final tussle

The Preview by Abhishek Purohit23-Jul-2013

Match facts

Wednesday, July 24, 2013
Start time 0900 local (1300 GMT)Will Chris Gayle adapt his style?•WICB

Big Picture

Tough, hard-fought cricket, along with the usual doses of excitement when you least expect them. Star player makes umpteenth comeback, walks in at 47 for 5, cracks 76 off 55 and then takes other-worldly figures of 9-3-12-7. Home side rebound from the thrashing with a convincing win in the second game, then follow it up with a last-ball, last-wicket train robbery of a tie when they are all but derailed. West Indies and Pakistan, true to reputation, have given us what they were expected to.And the Caribbean has given us another ODI series with twists and turns, following the tri-series also involving India and Sri Lanka. The balance between bat and ball, the absence of which renders so many one-day contests into one-dimensional batting gluts, has set this series up for one, final tussle between the two sides.In what has become unfortunately recurring due to the forced change in the West Indies home season, rain influenced the result of the fourth game. It arrived while the Pakistan chase was on, and imposed a revised target. West Indies found their three specialist bowlers had already bowled most of their quota; Pakistan had lost only their openers. Although the conditions and the situation were more in favour of the chasing side than the defending one, it must be said that more than those two, Pakistan’s self-destructing tendency often proves to be their undoing. That they didn’t succumb to any of the three is creditable, and irrespective of what happens in the final game, they have maintained their record of not losing a bilateral ODI series in the West Indies since 1988. They have, in fact, won the last two, in 2005 and 2011; even another tie will suit them fine.A lot has been said about West Indies’ improvement, recent and continuing, in limited-overs cricket. The improvement, however, does not seem to be translating itself clearly into results yet. In the past year, away series losses to Bangladesh and Australia, the latter a 0-5 whitewash, have been followed by an early exit from the Champions Trophy in England, and failure to make the final of a home tri-series. They are now faced with the task of winning the fifth match to avoid losing another home series to Pakistan. It is also crucial for Dwayne Bravo’s fledgling captaincy that he comes out of this scrap with a tied series.

Form guide

West Indies LTWLL (most recent first, last five completed matches)
Pakistan WTLWL

In the spotlight

This is Chris Gayle‘s worst year in ODIs, after his debut year in 1999, with an average just above 20. In a way, he is to the Caribbean what Shahid Afridi is to Pakistan. The star who towers above the rest of his team-mates, peerless in fan following. You don’t drop Afridi without expecting a backlash from the public; the same applies to Gayle. At 33, though, he is at an age where similar batsmen such as Virender Sehwag, batsmen who rely more on timing or power than on technique, have found it difficult to reinvent themselves in the face of dwindling returns. He was demoted to as low as No. 5 in the previous match and made 30 at a strike-rate of 65. How will he respond to this late challenge in his career?Mohammad Hafeez needed that fifty in the previous game. He’d gone 11 innings for a lone score of 50-plus, a century against Ireland. While Hafeez’s bowling in limited-overs is always handy, he is also a top-order batsman, and the Twenty20 captain. Given the long struggle to prove himself that Hafeez’s career has been, you sense that the feeling of insecurity somehow still lurks somewhere inside, and is likely to worsen matters when the runs are not coming. It also does not help that Hafeez is a rhythm player, and when the rhythm deserts him, it really does. Has he regained it after that 59?

Team news

West Indies demoted Gayle and chose Devon Smith to open instead in the previous game. Another failure for Smith followed, but it will be unfair on him if he gets just the one chance.West Indies: (probable) 1 Devon Smith, 2 Johnson Charles (wk), 3 Darren Bravo, 4 Marlon Samuels, 5 Chris Gayle, 6 Lendl Simmons, 7 Dwayne Bravo (capt), 8 Darren Sammy, 9 Kemar Roach, 10 Sunil Narine, 11 Jason HolderGiven Ahmed Shehzad’s continuing struggles, Pakistan have the choice of opening with Asad Shafiq, who’s batted at the top before on a few occasions. Umar Amin played the tour match against Guyana but hasn’t got a game yet in the series. He is another option.Pakistan: (probable) 1 Nasir Jamshed, 2 Ahmed Shehzad, 3 Mohammad Hafeez, 4 Misbah-ul-Haq (capt), 5 Haris Sohail, 6 Umar Akmal (wk), 7 Shahid Afridi, 8 Wahab Riaz, 9 Junaid Khan, 10 Saeed Ajmal, 11 Mohammad Irfan

Stats and trivia

• Dwayne Bravo has the worst economy-rate in the series – 6.44. Hafeez has the best – 3.24
• Including the fourth game, Gayle has batted at No. 5 only eight times in 248 ODI innings

Quotes

“I had a good talk with Dr Scott Hamilton [West Indies’ sports psychologist] and I was trying to refresh my memory of the way my style of play is. My style of play is give myself a chance and push it around, and then I can definitely make up at the end.”

Dave Richardson, the ICC chief executive, has said that the issue of neutral umpires is once again up for debate in the light of events leading from the first Ashes Test

Nagraj Gollapudi18-Jul-2013David Richardson, the ICC chief executive, has said that the issue of neutral umpires is once again up for debate in light of events leading from the first Ashes Test, with the workload on the four neutral officials available for the England-Australia Test being scrutinised.With the ICC recently pushing the pair of Billy Bowden and Asad Rauf to the associate panel, the ICC elite panel, which comprises 12 officials, is left with only four umpires available for the Ashes considering the other eight are from Australia and England. And it is these four – Aleem Dar, Marais Erasmus, Tony Hill and Kumar Dharmasena – who are scheduled be rotated over the next six months to officiate in the remaining eight Ashes Tests.”Whether we need to re-debate the whole neutral umpires point again, which we have done on numerous occasions, perhaps with DRS, maybe the need to have neutral umpires is not what it used to be. I don’t think umpires ever cheated but the perception of them cheating was a problem,” Richardson told the BBC’s .Last year, Simon Taufel, a former elite umpire, who is now the ICC umpire training and performance manager, told ESPNcricinfo, that neutrality was not an issue anymore.”The elite panel has the 12 best umpires in the world and they do the majority of international cricket, but you do have to provide opportunities for other umpires coming through from home boards to show their skills and ability, allow them to work on their game. So it is always a balancing of the development. There is no perfect system,” Taufel said.Steve Waugh, former Australia captain, agreed with Richardson’s view. “I would welcome that,” he said. “Players would be comfortable with the best umpires umpiring the biggest games. With the DRS system around, the eyes of the world are on their decisions. It is a good thing for the game. And as Dave said, it does put a bit of pressure on the four umpires.”It would be good to see an Australian umpire, for whom, like a player, this would be the pinnacle of his career – umpiring a Test match at Lord’s. Right now it is difficult for him to do that. Just like an English umpire would like to be umpiring at Lord’s.”For the moment Richardson said the ICC had more resources at hand in case it became necessary to appoint separate umpires for the remainder of the Ashes series in England or Australia later in the year. “We are not restricted those four. We have got 26 other international panel of umpires who would be eligible to be appointed if we needed them.”These are guys nominated by their home boards and form almost the second tier of umpiring. People like Billy Bowden haven’t been relegated to the wilderness. He could argue he is the thirteenth-best.”Waugh said that during Tuesday’s MCC world committee meeting, one of the suggestions was to allow the umpires getting a couple of reviews to facilitate correct decisions. “We tossed up the idea whether the umpires should have two reviews themselves. May be that is something to look at in the future. The bottom line is there have been more good decisions over the last couple of years because of the system in place. In general it works well in conjunction with good umpiring.”

Sri Lanka batsman Kumar Sangakkara is set to join the Jamaica Tallawahs for the final stretch of the Caribbean Premier League

ESPNcricinfo staff18-Aug-2013Sri Lanka batsman Kumar Sangakkara is set to join the Jamaica Tallawahs for the final stretch of the Caribbean Premier League. The 35-year-old replaces Pakistan top-order batsman Ahmed Shehzad, who will join the Pakistan squad in Zimbabwe.”I did not expect to be playing the CPL this year, but when Muralitharan telephoned and asked whether I might be interested in playing for the Jamaica Tallawahs, I jumped at the chance,” Sangakkara said. “To play alongside Murali again will, of course, be a great privilege and it will also be very exciting to bat with Chris [Gayle] rather than being his opponent. The Tallawahs have had a great season thus far and I hope I can make a positive contribution as we seek to win the inaugural tournament.”Sangakkara is the fourth Sri Lanka player to join the CPL following the signings of Muttiah Muralitharan (Jamaica Tallawahs), Mahela Jayawardene (Trinidad & Tobago Red Steel) and Lasith Malinga (Guyana Amazon Warriors).Jamaica are currently placed third in the points table and have booked a semi-final berth. Their match against T&T on Sunday will decide their semi-final opponent.The other T20 franchises Sangakkara has played for are Deccan Chargers, Kings XI Punjab, Kandurata Maroons and Sunrisers Hyderabad. He was a part of the winning squad of Kandurata in the recent Sri Lanka Super Fours T20 Tournament.He has 3481 runs in 138 T20 matches at an average of 28.53 and strike rate of 124.76, and has 20 fifties to his name.

The BCCI has invited Cricket South Africa president, Chris Nenzani, for discussions on the proposed bilateral series, whose details are yet to be agreed upon and finalised

Amol Karhadkar08-Oct-2013The BCCI has invited Cricket South Africa president, Chris Nenzani, for discussions on the proposed bilateral series, whose details are yet to be agreed upon and finalised.”I have formally invited Mr Nenzani to come down to India and discuss the nitty-gritty of the series,” BCCI secretary Sanjay Patel said. “The date and venue will be finalised once all formalities are completed.”Patel, however, made it clear that the BCCI had not invited CSA chief executive Haroon Lorgat, whose appointment is believed to have led to the breakdown of relations between the two boards. Lorgat and Patel had met on the sidelines of the ICC chief executives’ committee meeting in Dubai last month, but had failed to reach a consensus over itinerary.Though an agreement has been elusive so far, Patel was confident the tour would take place. “We are very positive about the tour and don’t see any reason to take the extreme step.”He elaborated on what the BCCI’s grouse with the schedule announced by CSA was. “All that we are aggrieved about is the fact that we were taken for granted and the itinerary was announced unilaterally. Besides, our priority is the Board’s and our players’ interests. My boys are not machines, they need a break. Who are you (CSA) to tell them they should be on the road for more than three-four months?”

Shane Warne and Sachin Tendulkar are reportedly planning a new Twenty20 competition for retired international players

ESPNcricinfo staff15-May-2015Shane Warne and Sachin Tendulkar are understood to be planning a new Twenty20 event for retired international players that would involve two teams playing each other in a series of exhibition matches.Although the plans are not concrete yet at least the organisers – whose identity has not yet been revealed – have a shortlist of 30 players in mind. It is understood that they have identified, among others, Brian Lara, Rahul Dravid, Jacques Kallis, Ricky Ponting, Anil Kumble, Brett Lee, Adam Gilchrist, Muttiah Muralitharan, Andrew Flintoff, Glenn McGrath and VVS Laxman.The plan is understood to involve a series of matches around the world over a three-and-a-half-year period, with the USA to host the first series in September. The idea, it is learnt, is to take the matches to places where fans are starved of good quality cricket. The USA, Canada, Singapore, Hong Kong, UAE are some of the venues the organisers are exploring.A report in the newspaper said the proposed tournament – which it said would be called the Cricket All-Stars League – had offered contracts worth US$25,000 a match to ex-players to be involved in it.The seeds for this venture are believed to have been sown last year during Lord’s bicentenary celebrations, where Tendulkar and Warne led teams in a 50-over match. Subsequently both players and their management teams fanned around the cricketing globe to check if recently retired players were interested in playing in Twenty20 matches which would be competitive in nature.The organisers are also keeping powerful boards like the BCCI, Cricket Australia and ECB in the loop and are expected to make a formal announcement in the next two months to make the plans public.An ICC spokesman said it had not yet received any communication and had seen nothing other than what had been reported in the media. “There is a process in place with regard to activities such as this and the ICC will deal with it once it is approached,” the spokesman added.Lee’s manager, Neil Maxwell, said Lee had received an offer and would be seeking permission from Cricket Australia to play.”I can’t see anything wrong with it,” Maxwell told Fox Sports. “It’s a group of retired blokes playing a game of cricket.”The reports come as the Indian Essel Group also considers launching a T20 league, although the two ventures are unrelated.There has been no comment from Warne or Tendulkar, although in January, Warne tweeted that “Sachin & I have an exciting announcement soon”.

Return of international cricket to Pakistan might have been fraught with threat of violence, but the first ODI in the country in six years brought about the most non-violent 375 you could imagine, setting up a 41-run win

The Report by Sidharth Monga26-May-2015
Scorecard and ball-by-ball details
1:30

A run feast at Lahore

The return of international cricket to Pakistan might have been fraught with threats of violence, but the first ODI in the country in six years brought about the most non-violent 375 you could imagine, setting up a 41-run win. In an incredibly cool and calculated innings, hardly a shot was hit in anger as Azhar Ali, Mohammad Hafeez, Shoaib Malik and Haris Sohail chipped and chopped an innocuous attack to the highest total in Pakistan.However, the thinness of Pakistan’s attack, the flatness of the pitch and the fact that Zimbabwe’s batting is much stronger than their bowling, became apparent in the chase with only Wahab Riaz looking like taking a wicket. Elton Chigumbura scored a chancy century, Hamilton Masakadza a fifty, but the chase only kicked into life towards the end, by which time the asking rate had reached 15 an over, a task too tall with four Wahab overs to contend with.Considering Mohammad Sami and Anwar Ali’s struggle with the ball, Pakistan will be thankful their batsmen posted the total they did. This was the first time all of their top four scored fifty or more, and the first Pakistan innings to feature two 150-run stands. Malik’s 112 off 76 was his fastest century. Pakistan hit 35 fours and 10 sixes in all, but that masked the lack of frenetic hitting and powerful strokes you associate such big scores with.Azhar and Hafeez began sedately before opening up in a 170-run stand, Pakistan’s third-highest opening partnership at home. The duo missed out on what looked like certain centuries, falling within eight balls of each other, but Malik and Sohail took over from where they left, and added some more intent as you would expect after a strong opening. Playing for the first time in two years, Malik posted his first score of more than 43 in five years, at once reminding you why he had been dropped and why quite a few have been disappointed with an unfulfilled career.Azhar and Hafeez were Pakistan’s fourth opening combination in their last five ODIs, and the tentativeness showed in their start – eight runs in five overs on a pitch that never misbehaved. In the sixth over though, Azhar, the captain playing his first international at home, took the first risk, playing across the line of a ball outside off, placing it wide of mid-on for three. That shot was the release as he raced away to 21 off 24 with Hafeez labouring to five off the same number of deliveries.Zimbabwe’s attack didn’t have the necessary threat to hold the openers back. Hafeez got going with pick-up shots for four and six off Tinashe Panyangara in the ninth over. Azhar reached his fifty first, and Hafeez was on his heels and when he hit the remodelled Prosper Utseya – now bowling little legrollers – for successive fours in the 22nd over, Pakistan’s run rate had crossed six an over never to come back down again. Those two shots summed up the touch play this partnership relied on: first a mere push between mid-off and extra cover, and then waiting for the expected flatter delivery and back-cutting it between point and short third man.Utseya managed to get both the openers out, but looking at how Malik and Sohail went he must be wishing he hadn’t. It was Malik in this partnership that made a slow start, but from the moment he skipped out and lofted Sikandar Raza for a straight six in the 33rd over, he galloped along. With Malik looking in rare touch, Sohail could take it easy and settle in. As with Hafeez and Azhar, it was more about clever placement and missing the infielders rather than manic hitting for Malik.Forty-one came off the Powerplay, and at 263 for 2 in 40 overs Pakistan were set to break the Lahore record of 357, what with 10 an over in the last 10 almost the norm in modern ODI cricket. Except Pakistan are one of the teams that usually buck the trend. Not here. In Malik and Sohail they had right amount of placement and power, in Zimbabwe they had a flat attack, and the two carried the party on. Clean hits cleared the fence, mis-hits fell to ground, Zimbabwe missed quite a few yorkers, the fielding was poor, and 112 came off the last 10. In the 49th over Malik raised the first international century in Pakistan in six years. Sohail, who relied on some power hitting over the leg side in his 89 off 66, ran out of time, but time was a bigger problem for Zimbabwe who were about 40 minutes behind schedule in finishing their 50 overs.They didn’t show much more urgency in the chase, looking for the most part content with batting out the 50 overs of their own. Chigumbura and Masakadza added 124 for the third wicket, but they did so in 20 overs, which meant the asking rate had reached 14.5 for the last 17. Chigumbura, who survived a plumb lbw shout and benefited from two dropped catches, brought brief interest to the chase. He raced away to a maiden ODI century, in the process hitting Sami for a hat-trick of fours and then for 22 in another over. Wahab, though, proved too good for him, troubling him with bouncers before cleaning him up with a quick yorker, and ending the game in the process. Pakistan, though, will be worried at how ineffective their second string of bowlers were.