BULAWAYO: Zimbabwe have won the toss and opted to bat first in the second T20I of the three-match series against Pakistan at the Queens Sports Club here on Tuesday.
Playing XIs
Both teams have opted to field the same line-up that played in the first T20I at the same venue on Sunday.
Pakistan: Saim Ayub, Usman Khan (wk), Omair Bin Yousuf, Salman Agha (c), Tayyab Tahir, Irfan Khan, Abbas Afridi, Jahandad Khan, Sufiyan Muqeem, Abrar Ahmed, Haris Rauf.
Zimbabwe: Brain Bennett, Ryan Burl, Trevor Gwandu, Clive Madande, Tawandanashe Marumani (wk), Tashinga Musekiwa, Richard Ngarava, Dion Myers, Sikandar Raza (c), Wellington Masakadza, Blessing Muzarabani
Notably, Pakistan is leading the series after defeating Zimbabwe in the first T20I by 57 runs thanks to a valuable cameo by Tayyab Tahir, who struck an unbeaten 39 off 25 with the help of four fours and one six.
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An unfinished 65-run fifth-wicket partnership off 34 balls between Tahir and Muhammad Irfan Khan (27*) helped Pakistan post an imposing 165-4 while batting first.
In response, Zimbabwe scored 60 for two in their PowerPlay – eight runs more than Pakistan – but then ran out of steam to be bundled out for 108 in 15.3 overs.
Abrar Ahmed took two wickets in his second over to finish with figures of three for 28, while Sufyan Moqim mesmerised the middle-order with his left-arm wrist spin bowling to finish with figures of 4-0-20-3. Haris Rauf took two wickets for 17 runs.
For the unversed, prior to the T20I series, Pakistan made a resounding comeback to win the ODI series 2-1 after Zimbabwe defeated them in the first ODI by 80 runs in the Duckworth-Lewis-Stern (DLS) Method.
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