Farhat finishes up unbeaten on 75 as tourists cruise home in Harare, Mohammad Hafeez hit a superb unbeaten century to lead Pakistan to a resounding 10-wicket win over Zimbabwe in Harare. Opener Hafeez made a 50-over best of 139 not out from 147 balls to help the tourists seal the three-match series with one still to play.
He passed his previous best in ODIs of 121 by taking three fours off a Brian Vitori over, then hit the winning runs by pulling Christopher Mpofu for four. Hafeez combined with Imran Farhat, who made 75 not out, to amass the highest opening stand at Harare Sports Club as the tourists chased down their target of 226 with 7.5 overs to spare.
Tougher
Zimbabwe had found batting much tougher at the start of the day, scraping their way to 225-6 after skipper Brendan Taylor had won the toss. They were indebted to a 104-run partnership compiled by Hamilton Masakadza (68) and Taylor (50) after slipping to 36-2 inside the 14 overs.
Taylor reached his half-century by glancing Junaid Khan for two but perished shortly after, an attempt to uppercut a short ball from the same bowler resulting in him being caught at third man. Masakadza used up 118 balls in his knock before finally being put out of his misery by Misbah-ul-Haq’s throw. Tatenda Taibu did his best to lift the run-rate, hitting 26 off 32 deliveries, while Elton Chigumbura (17no) and Prosper Utseya (12no) provided some late fireworks.
In the end, though, their total was not even close enough to being competitive. After a solid but unspectacular start, Hafeez and Farhat picked up the pace superbly to see their side home at a canter.
The two teams will now complete the series in Harare on Wednesday before playing each other in two Twenty20 Internationals.
Source : SKY
