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Zimbabwe followed their tense, one-run victory against Australia on Tuesday with a comfortable 12-run win over defending champions Pakistan in their second warm-up match of the ICC World Twenty20 at the Beausejour stadium on Thursday. The underdogs posted a marginal 143/7 in their 20 overs after being put into bat but yet another disciplined bowling and fielding performance restricted Pakistan to a meagre 131 in reply.

The attention of the cricket playing world, never mind the Caribbean, is now rapidly turning towards the revitalised minnows in red. Having been many peoples' favourites to be outplayed by Ireland and Afghanistan amongst the smaller teams, Zimbabwe are now being talked about as potential giant-killers when the tournament proper gets under way.

Just as they did against Australia, Zimbabwe lost early wickets and looked to heading towards mediocrity despite Hamilton Masakadza's 33 from 30 balls at the top of the order and a measured 20 from Brendan Taylor. And just as he did against Australia, it was Elton Chigumbura who saved the day with another thrilling display of ball striking which earned him an unbeaten 49 from just 35 balls with a trio of both sixes and fours.

Whereas Craig Ervine assisted Chigumbura in a stand of 114 against Australia, his ally this time around was Charles Coventry who belted an uncompromising 30 from 19 balls with a couple of sixes over mid wicket and long on.

But it still required an inspired bowling performance to defend a score which was probably 20 runs short of 'par' and it duly came - from everyone. Skipper Prosper Utseya enjoyed the stand out analysis of 4/15 from his four overs but Chris Mpofu, given a rare chance with the new ball, was no less impressive with his 2/19 from three overs. Chigumbura completed another brilliant match with a couple of cheap wickets at the death to finish with 3/16 in three overs.

"It was probably an even better performance than the one against Australia because of the clinical way everyone went about their business. To a stranger watching the match, it was impossible to tell which was the defending champion and which was the underdog," said coach Alan Butcher. "We went head to head and won quite comfortably in the end. It's very, very encouraging."

Full scorecard below the cut. The team travel to Guyana on Friday where they play their two group matches against Sri Lanka and New Zealand on Monday and Tuesday.
Zimbabwe 143/7 (20 overs; Chigumbura 49*, Shahid Afridi 4/24), Pakistan 131 (20 overs; Kamran Akmal 37, Utseya 4/15). Zimbabwe win by 12 runs.
[Match report supplied by ZC]

Zimbabwe innings (20 overs maximum)	
							R	B	4s	6s	SR	
H Masakadza	c Umar Akmal b Shahid Afridi		33	30	4	0	110.00	
CJ Chibhabha	c Umar Akmal b Mohammad Sami		2	2	0	0	100.00	
T Taibu†	run out (Misbah-ul-Haq)			2	4	0	0	50.00	
BRM Taylor	c Mohammad Hafeez b Shahid Afridi	20	24	1	0	83.33	
AM Blignaut	c Mohammad Hafeez b Shahid Afridi	1	4	0	0	25.00	
CK Coventry	c Mohammad Hafeez b Shahid Afridi	30	19	1	2	157.89	
E Chigumbura	not out					49	35	3	3	140.00	
CR Ervine	run out (Mohammad Sami)			2	4	0	0	50.00	
GA Lamb		not out					0	0	0	0	-	
	Extras	(lb 2, w 2)				4					
	Total	(7 wickets; 20 overs)			143	(7.15 runs per over)

Did not bat: AG Cremer, T Maruma, RW Price, V Sibanda, CB Mpofu, P Utseya*

Fall of wickets: 1-3 (Chibhabha, 0.4 ov), 2-16 (Taibu, 2.4 ov), 3-60 (Masakadza, 9.4 ov), 
4-61 (Blignaut, 9.6 ov), 5-64 (Taylor, 11.1 ov), 6-126 (Coventry, 18.1 ov), 7-136 (Ervine, 19.3 ov)

Bowling		O	M	R	W	Econ		
Mohammad Sami	4	0	34	1	8.50		
Mohammad Asif	4	0	29	0	7.25		
Mohammad Hafeez	4	0	24	0	6.00	(1w)	
Khalid Latif	3	0	20	0	6.66		
Shahid Afridi	4	0	24	4	6.00		
Abdul Razzaq	1	0	10	0	10.00		


Pakistan innings (target: 144 runs from 20 overs)	
					R	B	4s	6s	SR	
Kamran Akmal†	c Mpofu b Utseya	37	27	1	4	137.03	
Khalid Latif	c Masakadza b Mpofu	1	5	0	0	20.00	
Mohammad Hafeez	c Cremer b Chigumbura	9	9	1	0	100.00	
Shahid Afridi*	c Cremer b Price	7	7	1	0	100.00	
Umar Akmal	c Cremer b Utseya	7	10	1	0	70.00	
Fawad Alam	c Masakadza b Utseya	32	27	3	0	118.51	
Misbah-ul-Haq	c Chibhabha b Utseya	21	23	2	0	91.30	
Abdul Razzaq	b Mpofu			2	2	0	0	100.00	
Abdur Rehman	c Utseya b Chigumbura	7	7	0	0	100.00	
Mohammad Sami	c Cremer b Chigumbura	3	3	0	0	100.00	
Mohammad Asif	not out			0	0	0	0	-	
	Extras	(w 5)			5					
	Total	(all out; 20 overs)	131	(6.55 runs per over)

Did not bat: Mohammad Aamer, Saeed Ajmal, Salman Butt, Hammad Azam

Fall of wickets: 1-7 (Khalid Latif, 2.1 ov), 2-24 (Mohammad Hafeez, 4.2 ov), 
3-33 (Shahid Afridi, 5.3 ov), 4-64 (Umar Akmal, 9.2 ov), 5-67 (Kamran Akmal, 9.6 ov), 
6-118 (Fawad Alam, 17.4 ov), 7-118 (Misbah-ul-Haq, 17.6 ov), 8-121 (Abdul Razzaq, 18.3 ov), 
9-124 (Mohammad Sami, 19.1 ov), 10-131 (Abdur Rehman, 19.6 ov)

Bowling		O	M	R	W	Econ		
CB Mpofu	3	0	19	2	6.33		
RW Price	4	0	29	1	7.25	(2w)	
E Chigumbura	3	0	16	3	5.33	(2w)	
P Utseya	4	0	15	4	3.75	(1w)	
AG Cremer	1	0	20	0	20.00		
GA Lamb		3	0	15	0	5.00		
T Maruma	2	0	17	0	8.50