KARACHI, Jan 17: Despite a defiant rearguard action by Gary Brent and Timycen Maruma, Zimbabwe crashed to an innings and 34 runs defeat in the four-day tour match against the PCB Patron’s XI at the DHA Stadium here on Thursday.

Left-arm medium-pacer Samiullah Niazi enhanced his prospects of being included in the Pakistan squad for the coming One-day International series against the touring side with excellent return of five for 42 in 24 overs.

Shahid Afridi, the Patron’s XI skipper, chipped in with two for 31 while the lanky Sohail Khan, who went wicketless on Thursday, finished with three for 76.

Sensing an early finish after Zimbabwe slid to 111 for six at stumps on day three, Patron’s XI had to wait until an hour after lunch on the last day to seal the victory after being held up by Brent and Maruma, who added 96 for the eighth wicket in 130 minutes.

Brent, at 32, the oldest member of the squad, allowed the 19-year-old Maruma to take the centre stage with some wonderful strokes in a career-best knock of 71.

Undeterred by the gloomy situation, Maruma easily reached his maiden first-class 50 before he gloved a catch to wicket-keeper Sarfraz Ahmed off Afridi.

The tail-ender, who survived a low chance to the wicket-keeper off Sohail when he was 42, went to his half-century with two superb boundaries off the same bowler.

Brent was also reprieved by Sarfraz off the same bowler when he had made 21. But he and Maruma, who had joined his partner after Elton Chigumbura hade been trapped LBW by Sami in the fourth over of the morning.

The arrival of the second new ball after 86 overs made little impression on the tail-enders as the partnership blossomed. Maruma, who struck eight fours in his 101-ball innings, hardly looked like a No 9 batsman as he confidently took on the bowlers.

Brent’s long vigil at the crease – two hours and 46 minutes – came to an end when he was bowled by Afridi for a 115-ball 31. Ray Price struck Afridi straight out of the ground for six before Sami finished the game by having last man Christopher Mpofu leg-before-wicket for four.

Robin Brown, who took over from Kevin Curran as Zimbabwe’s coach in August last year, expressed his disappointment over the defeat, but said that it was not going to demoralise the team.

“It was not all bad news for Zimbabwe. We have taken some positives from this game that should help our cause to compete at the Test level again,” the former wicket-keeper/batsman, who was a member of the World Cup squad in 1983 and 1987, told reporters.

“I’m happy with the way the boys performed here, especially batting for over 100 overs in the second innings. Some of batsmen spent more time in the middle and the bowlers had long spells, and that’s an encouraging sign for us.

“But I must admit it was disappointing to be bowled out for 209 in the first innings on a flat pitch,” he added. “Overall, we think of every match as a learning curve and the chance to keep on learning about different situations and conditions.”

Zimbabwe now head into the ODI series against Pakistan with the first match on Monday here at the National Stadium.

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