PAK vs ZIM T20 World Cup: Twitter reacts as Zimbabwe register historic win over Pakistan in nail-biting thriller

Sikandar Raza shone for Zimbabwe as the Babar Azam-led side was defeated by Craig Irvine's side in a Super 12 match in Perth on Thursday.

Earlier in the day, Mohammad Wasim Jr, along with spinner Shadab Khan, helped Pakistan restrict Zimbabwe to a modest 130 for 8 in their encounter on Thursday.

After a promising start, Wasim (4/24) and Shadab (3/23) combined for seven wickets to ruin Zimbabwe's innings. Haris Rauf, who was struck out in the penultimate over of their previous match by Virat Kohli, also had his most economical T20 bowling performance, finishing with 1 for 12 from four overs.

When Ervine was outpaced, Rauf broke the partnership by lobbing one to Mohammad Wasim at short fine leg. Two balls later, Madhevere followed suit, LBW to Wasim as the batter tried an unsuccessful review. Milton Shumba (8) also didn't help his team's cause, allowing Shadab a simple return catch immediately after.

Sean Williams (31) and Sikandar Raza (9) shared 31 runs for the fourth wicket before Shadab struck twice in the 14th over to derail Zimbabwe's promising start. Shadab first cleaned up Williams as the batter attempted an expansive reverse sweep, and Regis Chakabva edged the next delivery, which was brilliantly caught by skipper Babar Azam at slips on the bowler's final ball of his spell, denying him a hat-trick.

In the next over, Wasim delivered a double blow that destroyed Zimbabwe's backbone. Raza was bounced out by Wasim, caught by Rauf at a deep square leg fence in the next over, and dismissed Luke Jongwe in the next ball, failing to recreate his form from the qualifiers.

Chasing down 131 seemed to be an easy task for Pakistan as they had a solid opening pair of Mohammed Rizwan and Babar Azam, However, Zimbabwe's bowling unit hit the right areas consistently making the contest a close one. Sikandar Raza struck with a brilliant spell, taking three wickets while Brad Evans chipped in with a couple of wickets as well. A lone resistance from Shan Masood, who scored 44 runs, was of no help as the equation was boiled down to 11 runs from the last six balls. 

It was a topsy-turvy final over as Pakistan were on their way to win after Mohammad Wasim smashed a boundary on the last ball. However, Brad Evans bowled the last two balls outside off in areas where the batters were not allowed to free their arms. Just when Pakistan were in need of three runs to win on the last ball as Ervine was completely alert to quickly throw the ball back to the wicketkeeper after collecting it to secure a remarkble win. 

Here's how fans reacted:

Incredible Zimbabwe!!!!!!!!! Tough one for Pakistan for sure. What a victory... #ZimVsPak

— Prashi Relangi (@prashirelangi) October 27, 2022

Zimbabwe you beauty#zimvspak#ICCT20WorldCup2022
Pakistan 

— shreyansh agrawal (@shreyan71908869) October 27, 2022

Zimbabwe #ZIMvsPAK #T20Worldcup

— Abhigyan (@o7gyan) October 27, 2022

Superbly played #Zimbaabwe #WakandaForever #ZimVsPak #PKMKB #T20WorldCup2022

— Abhishek Kothari (@abhyk86) October 27, 2022

Zimbabwe have defeated Pakistan by 1 run in a thriller #ZIMvsPAK #T20WorldCup pic.twitter.com/o8hvJtHLbu

— Wisden India (@WisdenIndia) October 27, 2022

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