Faras Ghani presents the Plays of the Day from the fourth ODI between Pakistan and Zimbabwe in Faisalabad
Faras Ghani in Faisalabad30-Jan-2008
Safraz Ahmed’s first stumping – that of Elton Chigumbura – handed Fawad Alam his first wicket in ODIs © AFP
Firsts for two
There were wonderful firsts for a couple of Karachi youngsters when Elton Chigumbura was stumped by Sarfraz Ahmed off Fawad Alam. It was Alam’s maiden ODI wicket in his third match, while Sarfraz made his first stumping in his second game. (He took two catches on debut.) Both Fawad and Sarfraz were members of Pakistan’s U-19 World Cup winning squads, in 2004 and 2006 respectively.Pace isn’t everything
There was plenty of talk of Sohail Khan’s pace prior to the match, and he didn’t take long to prove a point. Bending his back, he complemented pace with bounce and TatendaTaibu was left flashing at a rising delivery as Sohail’s exaggeratedfollowthrough took him right next to the batsman. However, the debutantwas delivered a telling lesson off the very next ball as a similar delivery wasferociously cut past point for a four. No one moved bar Sohail, whoquickly retreated to his bowling mark.Speed gun under the scanner
Players and umpires are known to have bad days, but today the speed gun – under constant watch due to Sohail’s debut – had a day to forget. Sohail was firing it in with grunts audible all over the stadium, but the speed gun obviously wasn’t impressed. And as a lethal yorker went through Ray Price’s defences for Sohail’s maiden ODI wicket, a mere flashed on the screens.Asoka’s errors
Watching it all from the dressing room was a rather unlucky VusiSibanda. Given out leg-before with a big stride forward to a Kamran Hussainin-cutter, Sibanda’s walk back to the pavilion depicted hisdisappointment aptly. A poor start for Asoka de Silva, the umpire, becameworse when Gary Brent was given marching orders despite replays showing Shahid Afridi’s delayed reaction might have reprieved Brent. de Silva, however, decided against using replays and Zimbabwe’s faltering innings suffered another setback.Planning for success
Nasir Jamshed’s heroics in the first two ODIs have been encouraging forPakistan. However, his predictable strokeplay – with lofted drives over mid-on – prompted Hamilton Masakadza to place a long-on right from the start. Due to the fielding restrictions, fine leg had to come inside the circle, and the move paid off. Chigumbura pitched on the shorter side and the flick was taken inches off the ground at short fine leg.