Pakistan will be looking to bounce back from their heart breaking loss to India when they take on Zimbabwe in a Group 2, Super 12 T20 World Cup fixture in Perth on Thursday.
PAKISTAN
Pakistan did everything, but beat India in their opening match which took place before a packed crowd in Melbourne. India had won the toss and elected to field and after a slow start Pakistan managed to reach a 159 for 8 with Masood and Ahmed both getting 50’s at good strike rates.
Their bowlers then put India under heaps of pressure early and at one stage India were trading as close to 10/1 to win the match. In the end though it was Virat Kohli who led India to a last ball victory with 4 wickets in hand. Rauf and Nawaz got 2 wickets each, but Nawaz, in particular, was disappointing with that final over. Naseem Shah was the pick of the bowlers for me with his 1 for 23 off 4 overs.
ZIMBABWE
Zimbabwe got a point from their opening encounter against South Africa which was rained off. They had initially batted first in a 9 over match scoring 79 for 5 thanks to a late flurry from Wesley Madhevere with 35 off 18 balls. He may not have known it at the time, but that brief innings probably stopped South Africa from winning the match. The South African run chase was then shortened to 7 overs and they finished on 51 without loss after 3 overs. All of the 3 Zimbabwe bowlers used were given tap by Quinton de Kock and there is really nothing that can be read into this game as far as form goes as conditions were very wet and Zimbabwe’s focus was clearly on playing for time.
HEAD-TO-HEAD
Pakistan and Zimbabwe have played against each other 17 times in T20 cricket with Pakistan winning 16 of those and Zimbabwe winning 1 fixture which took place in Zimbabwe.
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BETTING – Click here to bet
Pakistan 1/8
Zimbabwe 11/2
Suggested Bet: Any player to score 50, No, at 5/4
I am taking a bit of a gamble here that Zimbabwe bat first and if they do I think there is every chance the Pakistan bowling line-up will restrict them to a low score, which decreases the chance of any Pakistani batsman going over 50 and this is a bet I enjoy when I don’t have a firm feeling on the match result or as in this case the betting is very one-sided.
Suggested Bet: Pakistan Top Batsman, Babar Azam at 17/10
The top 2 in the batting are very short and this is because of the scenario mentioned above where Zimbabwe get bowled out cheaply meaning not many of the Pakistan batsmen would get to the crease. Babar failed against India and he is such a quality player that I don’t see it happening again.
Note: All prices correct at the time of writing but are subject to change
