Pakistan captain Sarfraz Ahmed praised his team’s ‘great performance’ after the nine-wicket victory against Zimbabwe in the third ODI sealed the series with two games to spare.
Pacer Faheem Ashraf was the pick of the bowlers, taking a career best of 22 as the hosts were all out for just 67.
Fakhar Zaman, who scored a century in the second ODI, continued his good form with an unbeaten 43 as Pakistan reached their target inside 10 overs.
“First of all, it was a great performance,” said Sarfraz in his post-match interview. “Faheem Ashraf is getting better day by day. He’s an allrounder, and we need him.”
Speaking of his effort, Ashraf said: “I try to bowl in good areas and a stump to stump line.
“Our bowling coach [Azhar Mahmood] puts in a lot of effort. He’s really helped us to get better, and a lot of credit for my first five-for in international cricket goes to him.”
For Zimbabwe, their 67 was their lowest ever total against Pakistan and the lowest score ever recorded in 78 ODIs at Queens Sports Club.
For his match winning spell of bowling (5 for 22), @iFaheemAshraf is the Man of the Match.#ZIMvPAK pic.twitter.com/LJjNCgPp1y
— PCB Official (@TheRealPCB) July 18, 2018
It was always going to be a tough task against Pakistan considering Zimbabwe were missing a number of key players due to a dispute with the country’s cricket board.
And Zimbabwe captain Hamilton Masakadza admitted the performance was one they rather forget.
“It was a bit of a disaster really,” he said.
“Today we’ve gone quite a long way backwards, but these things happen in cricket. As a batting group, we have a lot of hard questions to ask ourselves.
“The main thing is to stay positive, because once you go in that direction and get down on yourself it’s very hard to come back.”
