Pakistan Beats Zimbabwe in First T20 Match at Gaddafi Stadium Lahore

The return of international cricket was marked by Pakistan by a five wicket victory over Zimbabwe in the first Twenty20 on Friday. Mukhtar Ahmed, playing only second T20 international, opened the innings  with Ahmed Shehzad and helped Pakistan in reaching 173 in 19.3 overs while scoring 83 runs off 45 balls. Earlier the visitors reached a fighting total 172-6 with the help of Zimbabwe captain Elton Chigumbura’s 54 off 34 balls. Ahmed entertained the crowd of 27,000 to full capacity of the Gaddafi stadium by hitting 12 fours and three sixes. Pakistan captain Shahid Afridi said it is an historic occasion and victory has added to the joy because they have conveyed message to the world that Pakistan is a safe country to play.

Zimbabwean captain said they could not stop runs in first six overs due to which Pakistan scored 100 runs within first 12 overs which made a big difference in the end. Ahmed gave opening wicket partnership of 142 runs with Ahmed Shehzad who scored 55 runs. Ahmed amused the home fans by hitting four successive boundaries to fast bowler Christopher Mpofu in same over before securing 3 more boundaries against another medium pacer Brian Vitori. Zimbabwe came back in the game when it bowled both the openers out within two runs. Three more wickets of Pakistan fell quickly with Hafeez (12), Umar Akmal (4) and Shoaib Malik (7) before Afridi hit a winning  boundary off the first ball he faced.

Afridi said they should have won the match by bigger margin but fans want entertainment in T20 which was there and it was not a one-sided match. Earlier Zimbabwe elected to bat first after winning the toss where Hamilton Masakadza dominated the innings with Vusi Sibanda before Mohammad Sami sent both of them back. Chigumbura said it was Pakistan’s day today, hopefully next will be theirs. The second T20 of the series is going to be played on Sunday and then ODI series of 3 matches starts on Tuesday. Fans enjoyed first T20 with the help of www.tickets4pk.com which offers tickets of this series at inexpensive rates. This network of tickets is surely there to help spectators enjoy coming matches by offering seats at cheap rates. Visit Tickets4pk.com or call us on 0092 (0) 347-4959-529 to secure your seats in the ground.