Preview

1-0 Pakistan. You did expect this, did you? But little did you expect that Zimbabwe would give such a big fight to the home side.

First, with the ball, they restricted a strong batting unit to 281 and then with the bat, gave the hosts a run for their money. How did this happen? First of all an insipid batting performance from Pakistan.

Whether it was rustines or not, cannot say, but there was hardly any intent shown to score runs. Then, during the run chase, Brendan Taylor produced one of his best knocks ever, guiding Wesley Madhevere around.

The home side did come back towards the end but Zimbabwe can take heart from the fact that they fought hard. Come the second ODI, the captain winning the toss might think of chasing as there is plenty of assistance in the early afternoon for the bowlers.

Can the visitors produce a better effort this time to level the series?