The twenty-third match of the tournament and third match of the day was played between Pakistan vs Zimbabwe ICC t20 world cup 2022 in Perth Cricket Stadium Australia on Thursday 27 October 2022 in which Zimbabwe beat Pakistan first time in the world cup stage after great competition. Pakistan is number four in the T20 ranking and Zimbabwe is number eleven in the T20 ranking but the Pakistani team playing like they are number eleven. Pakistan needed a victory with the highest margin against Zimbabwe to make their position stronger in the world cup but they were defeated by Zimbabwe.
Match Preview
Zimbabwe won the toss and decided to bat first. Zimbabwe charged on Pakistani bowler from the very first ball bowled and scored 38/0 runs in just 4 overs. In the fifth over Haris Rauf help Pakistan to get a breakthrough on the final delivery of the over-get wicket of Craig Ervine in the next over Muhammad Wasim gets another breakthrough on the second delivery, a wicket of Wessely Madhevere. Zimbabwe scored 47/2 runs in the powerplay but lost their both opener’s wickets.
After the powerplay Pakistani bowler took control of bowling and managed to stop Zimbabwe on just 130/8 runs in 20 overs. In chasing 131 Pakistan batters struggled to play Zimbabwe bowlers and Pakistan lost their both openers on just 23 runs. Babar scored 4 for 9 and Rizwan scored 14 for 16 deliveries. Pakistan finishes the powerplay on 28/2 runs. In the fourteenth over Sikander Raza took back-to-back wickets of Shadab and Haider and put Pakistan under pressure. In the last over Pakistan need 11 runs to win but failed to finish well.
The whole team scored 129/8 in 20 overs and lost by 1 run from Zimbabwe. Now Pakistan on the second-last position in the pool and the only Netherland team is behind them due to Net Run Rate. Two other matches were played South Africa vs Bangladesh and India vs Netherlands. South Africa beat Bangladesh by 104 runs and India beat the Netherlands by 56 runs Currently India is at the top of the table with 4 points.
Player of the Match
Sikander Raza won the player of the match trophy for his match-winning bowling. He scored 9 runs facing 16 deliveries and get caught by Haris Rauf on the mid-wicket of Mohammad Wasim’s over. He bowls 4 overs and just gave only 25 runs with 6.25 economy but took 3 main wickets of Shan, Shadab, and Haider. In a post-press conference, Sikander said “I am careless who won the player of the match the most important thing is we won the match”.
Best Bowler of the Match
Sikander Raza who won the player of the match trophy is the best bowler of the match. He took wickets for his team when Zimbabwe desperately needed it. He took back-to-back wickets that help in Zimbabwe win.