Aizaz Cheema celebrated his 32nd birthday with two quick wickets to complete an eight-wicket match haul - the second best by a Pakistan debutant - to leave his side needing 88 runs to win the Bulawayo Test. Tatenda Taibu and Kyle Jarvis had kept Pakistan waiting with a 66-run overnight stand for the eighth wicket, but Taibu's exit without any addition to the score signalled the end of Zimbabwe's resistance.

After skittling out the top eight wickets in 27.3 overs, Pakistan were made to wait for exactly another 27.3 overs for their next wicket. With an in-and-out field aimed at keeping Taibu off strike, Cheema delivered the last ball of his opening over well wide of off stump. Anxious to get the single, Taibu looked to steer away from his body and guided the ball into the wicketkeeper's gloves.

In his next over, Cheema removed Chris Mpofu with a fuller length, making him edge to Adnan Akmal again. The speed of Zimbabwe's capitulation came as a surprise, given how resilient Taibu and Jarvis had been in the lead-up to stumps yesterday. It left Pakistan in sight of consecutive Test wins for the first time since 2005, following their series-levelling triumph against West Indies in Basseterre.