Zimpapers Logo

Brandon Moyo, [email protected]

A 277 run second wicket partnership between Craig Ervine and Joylord Gumbie saw Zimbabwe Select convincingly thump Pakistan ‘A’ by seven wickets yesterday at Harare Sports Club to go 3-1 up in the series.

Winning the toss for the first time in the series, Zimbabwe Select asked Pakistan ‘A’ to bat first and the visitors went on to finish on 295/9 in their 50 overs. In their response, Ervine and Gumbie put up a partnership for the ages as Zimbabwe Select finished on 299/3 to reclaim their grip in the series.

Ervine scored his 11th List A hundred, making 166 runs before he fell with the team needing 11 runs to win while Gumbie notched up his maiden List A ton, finishing on 111 runs as the pair helped guide their side to a comfortable victory in the fourth match.

Gumbie also fell with the team needing 11 for victory, leaving Milton Shumba and Wessly Madhevere in the middle.

In the game’s first innings, Bradley Evans put up a brilliant performance with the ball as Zimbabwean bowlers looked to have been going tough in the early stages of the encounter.

Evans took a fifer to finish with figures of 5/26 in his 10-over spell.

The skipper, Wellington Masakadza took two scalps for 45 runs in his spell while Victor Nyauchi and Blessing Muzarabani took one wicket each for 67 and 51 runs respectively.

Pakistan Shaheens’ Omair Yousuf did the most damage with the bat for the visitors as he scored 153 runs off 126 deliveries to help his side reach the biggest first innings score of the series so far.

Yousuf was supported by Kamran Ghulam who fell for 55 runs after facing 79 deliveries.

In their chase, Zimbabwe Select lost an early wicket of Tadiwanashe Marumani for four runs off two deliveries before Ervine joined Gumbie in the middle.

When Marumani’s wicket fell, Zimbabwe Select were left on 8-1 in 1,2 overs and the second wicket went on to fall with the home side on 285 runs.

For his 161 runs, Ervine faced 144 deliveries while Gumbie faced 124 balls for his 111 runs. Shumba finished on two runs while Madhevere, who concluded the chase with a four was on nine runs.

Shahnawaz Dahani finished with the best figures for the visitors, taking two wickets for 60 runs in 9,3 overs while Aamer Jamal took one for 47 runs in 10 overs.

Craig Ervine and Joylord Gumbie taking a single in yesterday’s win over Pakistan ‘A’

Zimbabwe Cricket (ZC) organised the six-match series as part of Zimbabwe’s preparations for next month’s crunch World Cup Qualifiers which will be played on home soil.

Zimbabwe will be happy that the national team skipper, Craig Ervine has picked form at the right time as the schedule for the Qualifiers has been released.

Zimbabwe is in Group A of the tournament alongside West Indies, Netherlands, United States of America (USA) and Nepal.

Yesterday’s win meant that Zimbabwe Select cannot lose the series now and the fifth match of the series is set to be played tomorrow at the same venue and starts at 09.15. – @brandon_malvin