Luke Jongwe impressed all with his distinctive bowling against Pakistan on Friday, 23rd April at the Harare Sports Club in the second T20 game. The Zimbabwean was awarded the ‘Player of The Match’ title as the African nation won their first-ever T20I against Babar Azam’s men. Zimbabwe crushed Pakistan by 19 runs. Defending a sub-par score of 118, Jongwe and co bowled Pakistan out for just 99 runs in 19.5 overs.
Jongwe dispatched Mohammad Rizwan and Babar setting up the winning plot for Zimbabwe. In his last spell, he cleaned up Haris Rauf and Arshad Iqbal. The spectacular speedster conceded only 18 runs in his 3.5 overs at an economy rate of 4.70. Not only his spell, but his unique celebrations grabbed the attention.
Longwe, 26, almost imitated South African bowler Tabraiz Shamsi’s shoe-calling celebration. Shamsi also got fame for his different types of celebrations. After the match, the bowler admitted that he tried to mimic Shamsi.
Shamsi's brother spotted in Zimbabwe ❤️@shamsi90 #PakvZim #ZimvPak #Cricket #BabarAzam pic.twitter.com/YQ6T80qjZ4
— Noman Views (@Noman2294) April 23, 2021
Luke Jongwe opens up on his unique celebration
After an impressive performance, the Zimbabwean fast bowler thanked his teammates and almighty. He also admitted that he tried to imitated Proteas fast bowler Tabraiz Shamsi after picking the wicket.
“I just want to thank Almighty for this game and my teammates as well as coach. It got difficult to bat later on in the innings and I just kept varying the pace, something that I’m good at. (On his celebration) I tried copying it from Shamsi of South Africa,” Luke Jongwe was quoted as saying after the match.
Brendon Taylor, who returned as the captain, was not hopeful about Zimbabwe winning the match after a batting disaster. But the win brought a smile to his face.
“Big turnaround from the first game and that’s all that you can ask of your players. They executed the plans superbly. I’d be lying if I say that I was confident (of defending 118) but we dug deep in the powerplay. We managed to squeeze Pakistan, and our commitment and dedication helped us get over the line,” Taylor stated.
Zimbabwe leveled the series 1-1 against Pakistan, the third rubber or the final game will be played on April 25 at Harare Sporting Club.