Pakistan fight back in Zimbabwe

Pakistan’s Saeed Ajmal steams in as Tinotenda Mawoyo, right, makes 163 not out [AFP]

Pakistan fought back to be 116-1 in reply to Zimbabwe’s 412, including an unbeaten 163 by opener Tino Mawoyo on the second day of their one-off Test at Queens Sports Club.

Pakistan lost Taufeeq Umar early on Friday when he was trapped lbw by Kayle Jarvis on 4, but opener Mohammad Hafeez was 79 not out in an attacking innings in which he punished Zimbabwe’s inconsistent bowling, especially from the seamers.

Hafeez and Azhar Ali, 27 not out, put up 108 together to leave the match in the balance after Mawoyo had patiently faced 453 balls for his maiden century in only his second Test.

He is only the third Zimbabwean in Test history to carry his bat through an innings.

Hard work

Second day scorecard

Zimbabwe 1st innings T Mawoyo not out 163 V Sibanda st Akmal b Saeed 45 H Masakadza b Saeed 11 B Taylor lbw b Saeed 10 T Taibu c Akmal b SKhan 44 C Ervine c and b JKhan 49 G Lamb lbw b Saeed 39 R Price c Azhar b Cheema 6 B Vitori c YKhan b Cheema 14 K Jarvis b Cheema 0 C Mpofu b Cheema 8 Extras: 23 TOTAL: (all out) 412 Fall of wickets: 1-71, 2-91, 3-111, 4-176, 5-270, 6-365, 7-374, 8-394, 9-394, 10-412. Pakistan 1st innings M Hafeez not out 79 T Umar lbw Jarvis 4 A Ali not out 27 Extras: (6lb) 6 Overs: 29 Fall of wicket: 1-8

“First I like to give thanks to the Lord,” Mawoyo said of his record.

“It feels good. I know Grant (Flower; Zimbabwe’s batting coach) has done it before, but I don’t know of anyone else. It’s been hard work for me in the past few months.”

Mawoyo conceded that Zimbabwe’s erratic bowling in the final two sessions allowed Pakistan to come back into the game.

“It’s going to be hard tomorrow,” he said.

“It’s spinning a bit so I hope the seamers will come tomorrow and hit their straps early on to give our spinners a good foundation.”

Resuming from his overnight score of 82, Mawoyo nervously reached his ton, but handled off-spinner Saeed Ajmal better than the day before.

His fifth-wicket partnership of 94 with Craig Ervine gave Zimbabwe the foundation to put on a competitive first-innings score in good batting conditions.

Ervine was out a single run away from his maiden Test half-century, being caught and bowled by Junaid Khan off a rising delivery.

At that point, Zimbabwe needed another partnership and Mawoyo and Test debutant Greg Lamb put on a crucial 95 for the sixth wicket before Lamb was trapped plum in front by Ajmal on 39.

Aizaz Cheema then cleaned up the Zimbabwe tail by removing Ray Price (6), Brian Vitori (14), Kyle Jarvis (0) and Chris Mpofu (8) with some brilliant bowling.

In reply, Hafeez and Ali gave Pakistan a god start after losing opener Umar on 4 early. Umar was adjudged lbw to pace bowler Kyle Jarvis, Zimbabwe’s best bowler of the day.