It was dominated by two players, one on each side, who were a class above their colleagues.
Zimbabwe’s opening batsman, Tino Mawoyo, dug in and held the innings together with an unbeaten 82, batting throughout the day; without him Zimbabwe may have been in considerable trouble.
For Pakistan, Saeed Ajmal, the off-spinner with the doosra, baffled all the Zimbabwe batsmen after their pace bowlers failed to make an impact; he took three of the four wickets to fall and could well have had more.
Zimbabwe made one change to their winning Test team against Bangladesh, replacing Elton Chigumbura, who has a knee injury, with Greg Lamb, the off-spinning all-rounder.
The morning was warm and sunny, and the pitch was a rather patchy green, which may have deceived Pakistan into picking three seamers – with just one previous Test and no great pace among them – and only one frontline spinner, and fielding when they won the toss.
The pitch gave no help at all to seam, but swing was certainly possible. The first four overs were more enthralling than anything the T20 could produce. The bowlers Aizaz Cheema and Sohail Khan beat the batsmen several times with their swing, but did not dismiss them, and the batsmen took full advantage of even small faults in line and length, scoring 28 runs without loss, with some stunning drives, pulls and flicks.
Pakistan put back their field, replaced Cheema with his fellow debutant Junaid Khan, and Zimbabwe had to work for their runs now.
They did a good job of it, up to 15 minutes before lunch, when, the pacemen having failed, Vusi Sibanda unwisely came down the pitch to the off-spinner Saeed Ajmal and was stumped.
It was a typical Sibanda innings for 45: it contained some superb strokes, especially pulls, and ended in a way that he was unhappy with.
The opening pair put on 71, a record for that wicket for Zimbabwe against Pakistan.
After lunch it seemed as if struggled a bit.
First Mawoyo, on 27, hooked a ball from Junaid straight to the long-leg fielder Sohail, who did not have to move to take the catch, but dropped it. This was to prove a very expensive miss for Pakistan. In the next over Hamilton Masakadza (12) went for a big hit across the line against a short but quicker ball from Ajmal, and was bowled.
Mawoyo settled down again, but at 111 Brendan Taylor fell, playing back fatally to a ball from Ajmal that turned quite sharply, to be trapped lbw for 12. Zimbabwe were now in danger of squandering their good start.
But there was also much credit to Pakistan, whose consistent application of pressure no doubt led to these errors.
The experience of Tatenda Taibu, once he finally got off the mark, prevented any further immediate casualties, although Mawoyo was now quite bogged down, concentrating hard but crawling along until he reached his first Test fifty off 163 balls.
He struggled to read Ajmal, but hung on with superb determination and concentration. The pair was still looking solid at tea, when the score had progressed to 162 for three.
After tea they continued until their partnership was worth 65, with Taibu making 44 of these off 70 balls.
Then he lost his wicket, slashing at a wide ball from Sohail and edging it to the keeper; the score was now 176 for four.
Craig Ervine came in, beginning uncertainly, but he gained in confidence and the partnership grew.
By the close they had added 69 runs, 38 of them to Ervine, and Zimbabwe will look to this pair to turn this into a really big stand on the second day.
Post published in: Cricket