Zimbabwe beat Pakistan for first time in 15 years

Zimbabwe recorded their first win over Pakistan for 15 years as they cruised to a seven-wicket victory in the opening one-day international at Harare Sports Club on Tuesday.

Chasing 245, Hamilton Masakadza and Vusi Sibanda enjoyed a century opening stand to lay the platform for only Zimbabwe's third limited-overs victory over Pakistan in 45 matches.

Skipper Brendan Taylor played a steady hand to see his side to their target along with a swashbuckling cameo from Sean Williams who smashed 39 from 23 balls to ease home nerves at the death.

Pakistan, who won the toss, were lifted by the experienced Misbah-ul-Haq (83) and Mohammad Hafeez (70).

While they were scoring at a run-a-ball, it looked as though the visitors would set a target of around 280, but they lost momentum as wickets fell and even the usually explosive Shahid Afridi (11) struggled to find the boundary.

"We misread the pitch, it looked like it was going to be slow in the second innings, but it just played slow from the start. Still, Zimbabwe bowled better than us," Pakistan captain Misbah said at the presentation ceremony.

"We were maybe 30 runs short, but you need to bowl and field well to defend this total. We were missing something in our bowling line-up today, especially with the new ball."

Zimbabwe appeared to have little trouble, though, as Masakadza (85) and Sibanda (54) put on 107 for the first wicket by manoeuvring the ball cleverly around the ground.

Taylor (43 not out) and Williams guided their side to a famous win with 10 balls to spare, the latter launching a six over mid-wicket to end the match.

"It's a pretty awesome feeling, we have shown a lot of character from a couple of weeks back when we were badly beaten by India, so I couldn't be happier," Taylor said.

"To beat the quality team that Pakistan have got shows that we are doing the right things. When our top-order batsmen come off it lays that foundation, our seam bowlers today were also exceptional. But there is still room for improvement, we dropped some pretty easy catches."

The second one-day international will be played at the same venue on Thursday.

Scorecard

Pakistan

Nasir Jamshed c Taylor b Chatara 27

Ahmed Shehzad st Taylor b Utseya 24

Mohammad Hafeez c Maruma b Chatara 70

Misbah-ul-Haq not out 83

Umar Amin run out 1

Shahid Afridi c Taylor b Vitori 11

Haris Sohail c Utseya b Vitori 2

Sarfraz Ahmed run out 7

Saeed Ajmal not out 3

Extras (lb-7, w-9) 16

Total (for seven wickets, 50 overs) 244

Fall of wickets: 1-56, 2-80, 3-179, 4-184, 5-198, 6-202, 7-223

Bowling: T. Panyangara 10-2-38-0 (w1), B. Vitori 10-0-42-2 (w6), T. Chatara 10-2-32-2 (w1), P. Utseya 10-0-60-1, E. Chigumbura 2-0-11-0 (w1), M. Waller 2-0-19-0, S. Williams 4-0-18-0, H. Masakadza 2-0-17-0

Zimbabwe

H. Masakadza c Misbah-ul-Haq b Saeed Ajmal 85

V. Sibanda lbw Saeed Ajmal 54

B. Taylor not out 43

T. Maruma c Ahmed Shehzad b Junaid Khan 18

S. Williams not out 39

Extras (b-1, lb-3, w-3) 7

Total (for three wickets, 48.2 overs) 246

Fall of wickets: 1-107, 2-176, 3-201

Bowling: Mohammad Irfan 9.2-1-45-0, Junaid Khan 9-0-55-1 (w3), Saeed Ajmal 10-0-44-2, Mohammad Hafeez 10-0-40-0, Shahid Afridi 9-0-51-0, Umar Amin 1-0-7-0

Image: Hamilton Masakadza

Photograph: Philimon Bulawayo/Reuters