Mohammad Hafeez 80, Babar Azam 54 and Azhar Ali 46 were the main contrubutors as Pakistan scored 296-9 where as in reply Zimbabwe were 68-0 before rain arrived.

By PakPassion.net Staff (31st May, 2015)

Result: Match abandoned due to rain.

Toss: Pakistan won the toss and chose to bat

Teams:

Pakistan team: *Azhar Ali, Anwar Ali, Asad Shafiq, Hammad Azam, Babar Azam, Mohammad Hafeez, Junaid Khan, +Sarfraz Ahmed, Shoaib Malik, Wahab Riaz, Yasir Shah.

Zimbabwe team: CJ Chibhabha, V Sibanda, H Masakadza*, SC Williams, R Mutumbami†, Sikandar Raza, CK Coventry, AG Cremer, T Panyangara, CB Mpofu, R Kaia

Rain played spoilsport as the 3rd and final ODI in Lahore between Pakistan and Zimbabwe was abandoned with Zimbabwe having made a brisk start in their chase of a daunting target of 297. This leaves Pakistan in a precarious position in their hopes of securing a place in the 2017 Champions Trophy.

Earlier, Pakistan opening batsmen Azhar Ali (46) and Mohammad Hafeez (80) continued their fine form as they put up an opening stand of 115 against a depleted Zimbabwe attack missing Brian Vitori and Tawanda Mupariwa.

However after a good opening stand Pakistan lost a flurry of wickets due to the exploits of Zimbabwe all rounder Sikander Raza who got the wickets of Hafeez and Asad Shafiq and also ran out Azhar Ali. Pakistan kept on losing wickets at regular intervals and it seemed that the team was heading for a modest total until the exploits of debutant Babar Azam (54 off 60) and a late flourish by Anwar Ali (38 off 23) got Pakistan to a commanding score of 296.

The Zimbabwe batsmen started well in their chase with both Chibabha and Sibanda striking at strike rates of 100+ and took a particular liking for Anwar Ali who went for 21 in his 2 overs before being taken out of the attack. However a power failure followed by heavy rain derailed Zimbabwe's chase and the match eventually had to be called off with a no result.

The match signifies the end of a first home series in Pakistan after six years and while Pakistan will be happy to have remained unbeaten they still remain at 9th position in ODIs with 87 rating points.

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