Following story was posted prior to the beginning of fourth ODI between Pakistan and Zimbabwe at Bulawayo on July 20, 2018.
Pakistan have already won the five-match ODI series against Zimbabwe at Bulawayo, and now looking to further stretch their lead towards a whitewash.
The fourth ODI between the two sides is about to kick off at the same venue on Friday under a cold weather but with regard to pitch condition, no worries for batsmen as it is being reported a flat pitch.
The fourth of five one-day internationals between Pakistan and Zimbabwe will be played in Bulawayo today. Pakistan already has an insurmountable 3-nil lead in the series. PTV Sports telecast the entire series live.#PAKvZIM pic.twitter.com/A1VA0m3ugl
— PTV Sports (@PTVSp0rts) July 20, 2018
However, despite the favorable condition for batsmen at Bulawayo, Zimbabwe’s batsmen have yet really struggled and let their side down. Even as the series is proceeding, their performance continue to further deteriorate.
It was a must-win game for Zimbabwe on July 18 as another loss would have let Pakistan to seal the series quite comfortably. But Zimbabwe failed to turn the table, and suffered a humiliating defeat.
In the third ODI, Faheem Ashraf ripped apart Zimbabwe’s battling lineup, and grabbed his first five-wicket haul in ODIs. His five wickets for 22 runs ended Zimbabwe’s innings in 25.1 overs on 69 runs. Only Zimbabwe’s three batsmen including Chamu Chibhabha, Hamilton Masakadza and Wellington Masakadza could into double figures with mere 16, 10 and 10 runs respectively.
Besides Faheem Ashraf, Junaid Khan also grabbed two wickets whereas Usman Khan, Yasir Shah and Shadab Khan took one each.
Unlike their batting, Zimbabwe had a dream start and picked up Imam-ul-Haq in the very first ball of Pakistan’s innings. Imam was caught behind off Blessing Muzarabani without scoring any run.
But then Fakhar Zaman and Babar Azam established an unbeaten partnership of 69 runs. Pakistan reached the target in just 9.5 overs with Fakhar Zaman and Babar Azam remaining not out on 43 and 19 runs respectively.
Earlier in previous two ODIs, Pakistan had defeated Zimbabwe by 201 runs and nine wickets respectively.
