HARARE: Seamers Shaheen Shah Afridi and Hasan Ali took four wickets each as Pakistan seized control of the first Test against Zimbabwe on the opening day of their two-match series at the Harare Sports Club on Thursday.

Hasan finished with 4-53 while the lanky left-armer Shaheen grabbed 4-43 as Zimbabwe — who won the toss and batted — were dismissed for a paltry 176 on a slow pitch.

Abid Ali then led Pakistan’s reply with a solid unbeaten 56 while fellow opener Imran Butt made 43 not out as the visitors closed the day on 103 without loss.

Both Abid and Imran were cautious at the start, having failed miserably in Pakistan’s 2-0 home series win over South Africa in February.

Abid took 13 deliveries to open his account but once he got underway with a pull for four off Richard Ngarava, he eased into his work striking nine further boundaries.

Imran, who had managed just 36 in his first four Test innings, was more circumspect as the pair offered no chances to Zimbabwe’s inexperienced bowling attack.

Zimbabwe were struggling at 59-4 at lunch with Hasan taking two early wickets, including the prized one of stand-in skipper Brendan Taylor for just five.

Debutant Roy Kaia stood firm in the post-lunch session, top-scoring with 48 before falling leg-before to Hasan while Donald Tiri­pano chipped in with 28 and Milton Shumba, also playing in his first Test, scored 27.

Zimbabwe seemingly recovered when Shumba and Kaia lifted them from a precarious 30-4 with a stand of 59 but an unfortunate run out of Shumba put an end to the fight.

Shaheen reached 50 Test wickets by dismissing Tendai Chisoro before taking the last two wickets to wrap up the innings.

In the first session Hasan was the star as he removed opener Kevin Kasuza, who played on in the second over of the day for a duck, and Taylor for five.

The stand-in skipper flashed rashly at a wide ball outside off stump, edging to Faheem Ashraf who swallowed up the chance in the slips.

In between, Shaheen had Prince Masvaure caught by Imran at second slip for 11 and left-arm spinner Nauman Ali, brought into the attack early, bowled Tarisai Musakanda through the gate for 14.

Zimbabwe won the toss and elected to bat after handing debuts to seamer Richard Ngarava, and batsmen Roy Kaia and Milton Shumba. Pakistan selected unorthodox off-spinner Sajid Khan for his first Test cap, though he went wicketless through the first innings.

Hasan and Shaheen bowled with discipline, while the hosts didn’t apply themselves well enough on a good batting pitch and was guilty of soft dismissals.

Zimbabwe, already missing three experienced players for the two-Test series, had their woes compounded further when captain Sean Williams failed to recover from a soft-tissue injury on the eve of the Test, while another experienced batsman Craig Ervine also failed to recover from a calf injury.

The teams are meeting in Tests for the first time since 2013, when Zimbabwe claimed the last of their three wins in 17 previous clashes. Pakistan have 10 victories.

Scoreboard

ZIMBABWE (1st Innings):

P.S. Masvaure c Imran b Shaheen 11

K.T. Kasuza b Hasan 0

T.K. Musakanda b Nauman 14

B.R.M. Taylor c Faheem b Hasan 5

M. Shumba run out 27

R. Kaia lbw b Hasan 48

R.W. Chakabva c Imran b Hasan 19

D.T. Tiripano not out 28

T.S. Chisoro b Shaheen 9

B. Muzarabani b Shaheen 14

R. Ngarava b Shaheen 1

EXTRAS 0

TOTAL (all out, 59.1 overs) 176

FALL OF WKTS: 1-0 (Kasuza), 2-18 (Masvaure), 3-30 (Musakanda), 4-30 (Taylor), 5-89 (Shumba), 6-124 (Kaia), 7-127 (Chakabva), 8-141 (Chisoro), 9-164 (Muzarabani),

10-176 (Ngarava).

BOWLING: Shaheen Shah Afridi 15.1-5-43-4; Hasan Ali 15-2-53-4; Nauman Ali 11-1-29-1; Faheem Ashraf 7-2-14-0; Sajid Khan 11-1-37-0.

PAKISTAN (1st Innings):

Imran Butt not out 43

Abid Ali not out 56

EXTRAS (B-1, NB-3) 4

TOTAL (for no wkt, 30 over) 103

TO BAT: Azhar Ali, Babar Azam, Fawad Alam, Mohammad Rizwan, Faheem Ashraf, Hasan Ali, Nauman Ali, Sajid Khan, Shaheen Shah Afridi.

BOWLING (to-date): Muzarabani 9-2-20-0; Ngarava 9-2-32-0 (1nb); Chisoro 6-1-17-0; Tiripano 6-1-33-0 (2nb).

UMPIRES: L. Rusere (Zimbabwe) and M. Erasmus (South Africa.

TV UMPIRE: I. Chabi (Zimbabwe).

MATCH REFEREE: A.J. Pycroft (Zimbabwe).

Published in Dawn, April 30th, 2021