When Shadab Khan swung Sikandar Raza over a leaping long-on fielder, Pakistan needed just 43 runs to win off 39 deliveries with seven wickets in hand. They had huffed and puffed chasing only 131 on a pacy, bouncy track at Perth Stadium, but with Shan Masood’s stabilising presence in the middle reviving them from 36 for 3, they seemed to be finally on their way to victory.
Then Shadab tried to make the equation even more comfortable, and attempted a second successive six off Raza. He picked out the man at long-off instead. New batsman Haider Ali played all around his first delivery to be struck on the pad plumb in front.
Even at 88 for 5, a collapse terrible enough to snatch defeat from the vicinity of victory appeared beyond even Pakistan’s reach. Turns out, it wasn’t. In their second heart-stopping last-ball result on the trot, after the Melbourne defeat to India, Pakistan went down by a single run to Zimbabwe, putting their hopes of making the T20 World Cup semi-finals in serious jeopardy.
Player of the Match Raza spoke about how he was extra-motivated for the match against the country of his birth after watching a video of Ricky Ponting. Raza would take a third, critical wicket in the space of four deliveries. Shan Masood, who’d made an unbeaten 52 off 42 balls against India, had again steered Pakistan out of trouble with a steady 44, soaking up the pressure of early wickets and landing the odd counter-punch.
Raza fired one down the legside, Masood missed the clip, losing his balance in the process, and Regis Chakabva pulled off a sharp stumping.
Pakistan still had some batting left, with Mohammad Nawaz the spin-bowling all-rounder and Mohammad Wasim the seam nearly-allrounder, whose selection ahead of Asif Ali had meant Nawaz hadn’t been given the ball at all after his last-over meltdown against India.
But Zimbabwe’s new-ball pair of Richard Ngarava and Blessing Muzarabani bowled three outstanding overs of high-quality pace, barring a high full toss from Ngarava that Nawaz mowed over long-leg for six. Bowling exactly what the pitch and the ground dimensions – massive square boundaries and shorter straight ones – demanded, they used the ‘hard’, shortish lengths liberally, sending delivery after rising delivery fizzing past furiously swishing blades. The slower ball and pitched-up lengths were used as change-ups; Wasim almost lobbed a catch off the splice as he was done in by the sudden lack of pace right after a heavy climber.
Even as the asking rate ballooned into double digits, Zimbabwe, not used to being in these situations where they are within sight of a historic upset, started panicking in the field. Fielders fumbled or overran the ball in the deep, allowing easy second runs. Throws came in wide and wild, even from within the inner circle. On one occasion, Chakabva ran forward to collect the ball and got in the path of what looked set to be an accurate throw that would have tested the batsman had he stayed adjacent to the stumps.
Heady climax
It came down to a not ungettable 11 off the last over, to be bowled by Brad Evans. Now Evans had already made a couple of major contributions in the game with bat and ball. He had struck 19 off 15 balls, the joint-second- highest score from a Zimbabwe batsman in the match, at No. 9, and then moved one away from Babar Azam to produce a leading edge to backward point and give Zimbabwe the first breakthrough in the fourth over.
But Evans began the final over in disastrous fashion. Going against all that had worked for Ngarava and Muzarabani, as also himself, so far in the game, he bowled full to Nawaz first ball with mid-off up and conceded three runs.
Still going against the flow, he now tried a slower ball, pitching it up once more. Wasim steadied himself, waited for it to arrive and bashed it for four down the ground.
Finally, on the third ball, he reverted to what had succeeded all evening – the shorter length. Wasim heaved hard but could only slap away a single.
Nawaz was on strike now. India had needed as many as 15 off the last four balls and Nawaz, the bowler, had failed to rein them in. Nawaz, the batsman, would fail again with a mere three needed off three.
Following a swing-and-miss to another lifter, he attempted to clear mid-off but a back-pedalling captain Craig Ervine judged the take nicely under pressure. Wasim slumped to the ground and sunk his head into his knees, helpless at the non-striker’s end.
To Shaheen Shah Afridi, Evans went full for the last ball and the tall fast bowler swiped it down the ground. Who else but Raza to swoop down on the ball from long-on and fire in the throw at the correct end – to the wicketkeeper. So far away was Afridi that Chakabva had enough time to recover after failing to collect the ball and taking it in the stomach instead, watching it roll away, lurching after it, picking it up and removing the bails. Even as Azam sat stunned in disbelief in the dugout, the overcome Zimbabwe players surged towards each other and fused into an emotional huddle.
Ervine would later say that at the break, they had felt as many as 25 runs short. To even contemplate victory from there, and then to actually go out and achieve it – Raza summed up the feeling, “I am lost for words, my mouth’s dry.”
Brief scores: Zimbabwe 130/8 (Williams 31; Wasim 4-24, Shadab 3-24) beat Pakistan 129/8 (Masood 44; Raza 3-25, Evans 2-25) by one run
