Pakistan beat Zimbabwe by 20 runs to record their first 2015 World Cup win and climb off the bottom of Pool B table

• Pakistan won the toss, decided to bat, and recorded 235-7 in their innings
• Zimbabwe captain Elton Chigumbura suffered a suspected quadricep tear while fielding but managed to bat despite his injury 
• Despite coming close, thanks to a heroic effort from Chigumbura at the end of the innings, Zimbabwe could not reach the total 
• Zimbabwe were bowled out for 215, and Pakistan recorded their first win of the 2015 World Cup to move off the bottom of Pool B 

Pakistan at last got their World Cup crusade up and running as they beat Zimbabwe by 20 runs in a low-scoring challenge in Brisbane.

Batting first they made 235 - recuperating from four for two - and were then ready to confine Zimbabwe to 215 full scale in their pursuit, importance they grabbed a first triumph after thrashings to India and West Indies.

Skipper Misbah-ul-Haq's 73 supported the Pakistan batting, while Mohammad Irfan (four for 30) and Wahab Riaz (four for 35) shone with the ball.

 

Pakistan's Mohammad Irfan celebrates the wicket of Solomon Mire; the bowler took four wickets for 30 runs

Pakistan captain Misbah-ul-Haq top-scored for his side, managing 73 runs before being dismissed

Ul-Haq plays a shot, while Zimbabwe wicket keeper Brendan Taylor watches on from behind the stumps

They shackled Zimbabwe, with Brendan Taylor's 50 insufficient to take care of business.

Irfan uprooted the main three for a consolidated 46, having Chamu Chibhabha (nine) and Sikandar Raza (eight) edging him to second slip, while Hamilton Masakadza holed out to mid-on (29).

Taylor had made great advance however scratched Riaz behind for a 72-ball 50, and the wickets kept on falling as Sean Williams hit Rahat Ali to retrogressive point (33).

Solomon Mire made only eight preceding Irfan disposed of him, and Craig Ervine 14 scratched Riaz to Umar Akmal - one of five gets for the attendant.

The Pakistan players celebrate after taking the wicket of Zimbabwe's Wahab Riaz during their Pool B match

Earlier in the day, Shahid Afridi was dismissed for a duck, but Pakistan managed to put together a total of 235

Tendai Chatar (second left) is surrounded by his Zimbabwe team-mates after dismissing Nasir Jamshed

Tuwanda Mupariwa strove for a duck, Tinashe Panyangara was run out for 10 and after that, when Elton Chigumbura edged Riaz behind, the amusement was carried out.

It was lucky for Pakistan that they were not confronting a more risky side considering their own score.Their innings got off to an awful begin and they ended up reeling on four for two after just 23 balls. Nasir Jamshed was the first man out, gotten at square leg off the playing of Tendai Chatara.

Elton Chigumbura suffered a suspected torn quadricep while fielding, but managed to bat later on in the day

Chigumbura lies on the turf in Brisbane, but the Zimbabwe captain later took to the field, scoring 35 runs

Taylor (left) watches on as Afridi dives low to his left to stop the ball going past him during the match

The same bowler took the second wicket as well, impelling an edge off Ahmed Shehzad who scratched behind for a 11-ball duck.

Haris Sohail signed up with Misbah and the twosome put on 54 until the previous was gotten at short mid-wicket, Raza doing the occupation.

An alternate solid stand, this time of 69, pushed the group score behind a hundred, preceding Akmal (33) was cleaned up by Williams.

Afridi (centre) walks from the crease after being dismissed for a duck off the bowling of Sean Williams

Tawanda Mupariwa (centre) celebrates after he caught and bowled Sohaib Maqsood of Pakistan

It had been a fine execution by Zimbabwe by then and it improved when Shahid Afridi holed out for a brief moment ball duck on his 35th birthday, bowled by Williams.

Sohaib Maqsood included 21, having been dropped by Ervine on eight, while a substitute fielder additionally shelled Riaz when he was on 41, with the number 10 going ahead to make his first ODI half-century from 45 balls.

He was left unbeaten on 54 toward the end, with Sohail got and bowled by Mupariwa and Misbah uprooted for a superb 73 when he was discovered at long on, giving Chatara his third scalp for 35 runs.

Zimbabwe's Sikandar Raza avoids a short delivery from Pakistan's 7ft 1 bowler Irfan, who impressed

Irfan adjusts his hat as he watches on from the boundary during Zimbabwe's innings

Across The Universe

 

What if the world really were to collapse this year? All our lives, simultaneously, cease to exist? Our death anniversaries, coincide? Would you be satisfied with what you've woven into the world thus far? Of course, to achieve that would be ideal and therefore, utterly impossible, but do you think you could leave things as they are? Or shift your gear to number five and finish all that you think you were meant to do? My questions are a way of delaying the answers I don't have. Whether or not this debate of 2012 being the year of our doom gets resolved (I have a feeling we will be in 2013 by the time it does), aren't we always advised to live each day as if it were our last? Realistically, keeping a provision for contingencies such as bad hair days, mood swings and PMS, why don't we instead try living this year as if it were our last?

 

Through a roller-coaster-cum-maze my life has been in just (wait for it) two decades of its completion, I think I'd like to pick my last year as one that (I know you're expecting peaceful and saint-like) is the scariest and most unexpected ride of my life! Because what fun would it be otherwise? I've spent afternoons in dingy, musk-smelling bars with anticipation of where the evening will take us. In alleys trying to distinguish our breath from the smoke. In comfortable hand-me-downs, with an excuse of a winter, relishing warm tastes. In yellow-blacks, entangled beyond comprehension. In the lives and minds of others because nobody has left anyone a choice anymore. 

In Ford Fiestas. In a place that tries excusing itself by adopting a happy name but that doesn't rule out the memories it gave me that make me cringe, even today. Taking a full year break and then coming back to a life I always used to know. To people I love (even though some of them I don't like very much, but I still love). To the horrible, horrible, horrible inevitability of growing-up. To prospects of magnanimous success or stupendous failure, both equally exciting and fear invoking. To finding love, losing love, and then not knowing what love really is.

But I do. You have to be selfish even when it comes to one of the most selfless concepts in the world. It can be love if it's one-sided, but it cannot be ego. It can be love if the balance is tipped to a 70:30, but it cannot be self-esteem. It can be love if you give all he asks for and never the other way around, but it cannot be healthy. It can be love if you've roughed all his troughs but never been the one he looked for during the crests, but it cannot be friendship. When you realize what you're worth is really a lot more than that, and when the realization hits you if there's even ONE person by your side to tell you that you're doing the right thing and that you're going to make it, you're going to make it. And here I am.

Something changed in me the night of the beautiful lights, an open sky, the grains of sand that I could feel, each and every one of them as distinct as if they were many times their real size, and the unconditional love that was coming to me from all directions and the love that was emanating from me. The night we welcomed the new year in Paradise. All this while we'd been labeling the feeling as ecstasy, when what it really was, was not a feeling, it was a state. A state of contentment. And of security. I had my backbone that night, and my eyes. But when I thought about it a little more, a few kilometers away, I just as well had my mind, left-hand, right hand, my two feet and heart, safe and sound. And I wasn't apologetic about any of them.

Take these away and you'd think I'd be rendered inconsequential. But my soul is unique, and mine alone, and when the world (or the world as I know it) ends, it will know what to do, it will know who to tell, it will know what to tell, somehow it'll know. So I have a picture in my head where boy meets girl, boy kisses girl, and the world could happily end at that very moment, because it's the simplest and sweetest kiss in the world... And sometimes that's all you need.

This is late, but do have the happiest new year. :)

Lost are those who are forgotten

 

Life cannot be better, we say when everything around us goes the way we want it to be. It feels like we have been riding a big airplane-sized car on the straight and plain highway of life. There is no traffic, no stop sign, nothing to distract us. We and our life. We get whatever we want. Life feels picture-perfect. 

This is where we do the prime mistake of our lives. The slip where we are going to slide so hard that  we are going to burst. We do not even realize what we are doing. We climb all the way to the mountains and do not know our way down. This is where life likes to play with us. To play with our emotions and beloved ones. Just to make us stronger. Life just wants us to realize the authenticity and not to forget the sure-happenings of life. Life puts a bump on the super straight highway. A slow-down. Life takes away our beloved ones from us. 

Ones without whom our life is meaningless. Ones who ho are actually the wheels of our car which keeps our vehicle running. What should we do in that situation? Give up? I don’t think so. Life itself is so dumb. It just knows few tricks to get us but we are a lot smarter than that. Do not let life play on us but play with life. Tell life how strong we are and we have not forgotten anything. We know our way down and we know that life is not perfect. Tell life that we know we all are in this world to leave. We know that this straight simple way is going to be stony at some place and we will get through it. Sometimes we think that why life chose us to be the victim. Remember we are not the victims, we are blessed ones. 

Life did it to us because we are a lot stronger than other people and we will become inspiration of people. We will become a source of message for other million people and show them that we are living in the real world and we thank God for everything. We obviously miss the lost ones but now we are going to live our own lives because people need us. Because this world needs some good people to be here still to spread the intelligence. Our families need us to support them and we will make proud those who are taken away from us. We did not actually lose them. 

Lost are those who are forgotten. They will be there with us, in our memories forever. We will meet them in heaven someday and will spend the never-ending life with them. Everybody loves us. I used “We” all over this little message because it’s not just you. You are not alone. It’s you and me together. It’s we now and forever.

A Question

When I was child I used to love traveling by trains. Sitting by the window used to be so much fun, during the day as well as during the night. I used to enjoy looking at the green fields, big piles of hay covered with a clay overcoat, goats and cattle running around in the fields and sometimes, when there was a road parallel to the railway line, I used to look at the traffic and see if anyone was willing to race with us. At night time, you can’t see anything outside but if you concentrate, you see light glows popping out of the horizon as if the sun is ready to rise. 

You may even spot a number of them. These dim glows are the lights at far off places. It could be from a major city, a factory, a lonely house of a farmer who somehow managed to get a generator for his domestic use or from a mosque in a small town.

These glows used to fascinate me. I would just stare at them and wish that if I were able to fly I would fly to them. I was curious to see how many people would be there and what would they be doing, what would they be thinking. I was curious to know if I was as important to them as they were for me. I was curious to know if they ever wished that they could grow wings and come see me sitting by the window of a train, passing miles away from their town. Such a childish thought

 

 

Time passed by and I grew up. God gave me opportunities to see the world and meet people of every race, religion and language. Had experiences to groom myself, friends to cherish, moments to remember and stories to share. Now when I get to travel in a train and look outside the window I don’t get the same feeling anymore. I no longer feel the curiosity to grow wings and fly to see what lies within a light glow, miles away from our moving train. How do people live there and what are they thinking. Somehow, it doesn’t matter to me anymore.

 

Is this a blessing or a curse?