HARARE – Pakistan s captain called for improvement even as his team beatZimbabwe by seven wickets to enter the final of the T20I tri-series.

Zimbabwe were knocked out of the T20I ti-series on Wednesday after losingto Pakistan by seven wickets in Harare. This victory set up Pakistan’sclash in the final with Australia, who have already won both their games sofar and will meet Pakistan for an inconsequential league game on Thursday.

Even as Solomon Mire notched up the highest individual score by a Zimbabwebatsman in T20I cricket by hitting a 63-ball 94, his team could only manage162/4 in their 20 overs, a total that was scaled comfortably by Pakistan,who were helped by 40s from Fakhar Zaman (47) and Hussain Talat (44), andan unbeaten 38 by captain Sarfraz Ahmed.

Ahmed, who hit the winning runs for the team, was not happy, however, withthe team’s bowling performance. Although Pakistan managed to restrictZimbabwe to 162 after giving away 24 runs in the first three and 46 runs inthe first six overs, Mire, helped by Cephas Zhuwao (24) and TarisaiMusakanda (33), hit the Pakistani bowlers for 13 fours and 7 sixes.

“I am not happy with the way my bowlers were bowling. It was not up to themark. When our bowling was finished [with] 160 [it] looked like a goodbatting track,” Sarfraz said.

The captain also urged the batsmen to finish games after getting goodstarts and helping themselves to 40s and 50s. “Our start was very good, twobatsmen got into the 40s but did not finish the game. We have to tell themthat if you score 40-50, then you have to finish the game. Big gametomorrow (against Australia) as we would try to take the winning momentuminto the finals,” he said.

Mire, who picked up a wicket as well in addition to his record-breakingknock, was happy the plans came off while Zimbabwe were batting. “It was agood day. The game plan was, as we had discussed in the last few games, tohave one of the top three-four guys to stay on till the end and kick on toget a big score,” Mire said.

“I had an operation straight after after the [World Cup] qualifiers andhave been struggling for seven or eight months. I am trying to bowl muchmore now and it felt much better today.”

The opening batsman felt that Zimbabwe had a competitive total on the boardbut some ordinary bowling and slip-ups in the field cost them the game. “Ithink the total was competitive. It always hurts in the end if you have acouple of misields or a couple of bad balls. It becomes a different chase.”

Zimbabwe captain Hamilton Masakadza lauded his team for bouncing back fromthe 100-run battering at the hands of Australia – where Aaron Finch smasheda world-record 172 – but conceded that the team didn’t perform well underpressure by giving away easy runs.

“Definitely much better from the boys as they put up a much better fight,”Masakadza said.

“They bowled well at the death and [but] we ended 10 or 15 runs short. Itadds up with maybe 10 or 15 we gave in the field as well.

“The guys did not operate well under pressure, there were few too manymistakes. It [fielding] is one of our best suits so hopefully we can get ittogether in the next game.”