With a magical spell of match-winning bowling, Pakistan spinner Sufiyan Muqeem entered an exclusive club on Tuesday against Zimbabwe in Bulawayo during the second T20I. Muqeem’s scalp was spanned by his show of brilliant pace variation along with the effective use of top spin and googly, which ripped through Zimbabwe’s batting line-up. In a scintillating 2.4-over spell, he took five wickets for just three runs. Muqeem inscribed his name into history with his best figures of 5/3, making him the first bowler to achieve this distinction in Pakistan T20I cricket history. The left-arm spinner surpassed former pacer Umar Gul’s record of 5/6 against New Zealand in 2009.
Muqeem thus found himself among the elite group of bowlers from Full Member nations who have secured a five-wicket haul in While conceding fewer than five runs. Before him, there were only three such bowlers–Sri Lanka’s Rangana Herath, Afghanistan’s Rashid Khan, and India’s Bhuvneshwar Kumar.
Herath’s record was established in 2014 with figures of 5/3 against New Zealand, followed closely by Rashid with a 5/3 against Ireland in 2017; Bhuvneshwar now joins the fold in 2022, with a 5/4 against Afghanistan.
Muqeem brilliance with the ball made sure that Zimbabwe hits a new low-total in T20I history, only 57 runs. Zimbabwe won the toss and opted to bat, then was left regretting that decision as Muqeem spun havoc in a very brief spell.
Although the Zimbabwean openers started well, Abbas Afridi drew the first blood of Tadiwanashe Marumani. Zimbabwe, with 37/1 on board, collapsed all of a sudden into 9 wickets for just 20 runs.
Pakistan had quick work of the replay with Saim Ayub and Omair Yousuf and brought it up to a close in the powerplay and sealed a 10-wicket win for Pakistan, taking over the 2-0 series lead.
