Pakistan captain Misbah-ul-Haq stood firm as his side lost five wickets chasing victory on the fourth day of the second Test against Zimbabwe at the Harare Sports Club on Friday.
Set 264 to win, Pakistan were 5-158 at stumps giving Zimbabwe a realistic chance of sharing the series and earning a rare victory against one of cricket’s major nations.
Misbah was unbeaten on 26 and will resume batting on Saturday with wicketkeeper Adnan Akmal (17 not out), with Pakistan needing another 106 runs to win.
Pakistan made an aggressive start after bowling out Zimbabwe for 199, breaking a trend of slow scoring on a wearing, cracked pitch. But they were forced to become more cautious as the Zimbabwe bowlers struck at regular intervals.
First-change bowler Tendai Chatara dismissed Mohammad Hafeez and Azhar Ali in quick succession to reduce Pakistan to 2-46 in the 12th over.
Opening batsman Manzoor Ahmed stroked his way to his second half-century of the match, hitting 11 fours in an innings of 54 before he was caught at short leg off off-spinner Prosper Utseya.
That brought Misbah in to join fellow veteran Younis Khan but Pakistan suffered a huge blow when Younis was bowled for 29, shaping to play left-armer Brian Vitori to leg and losing his leg stump.
Misbah might have given a difficult chance when he was on 14, with wicketkeeper Richmond Mutumbami diving far to his right but unable to hold on to a low deflection.
But Mutumbami made no mistake when Asad Shafiq tried to cut Utseya and top-edged the ball into the wicketkeeper’s gloves.
Chatara finished the day with two for 29 from 13 overs, while Utseya had two for 40 from 13 overs.
Earlier, left-arm opening bowler Rahat Ali took five for 52 as Zimbabwe were bowled out after adding only 78 runs to their overnight 4-121.
Rahat made the first breakthrough when he had Vusi Sibanda caught behind for 10 and he followed up with the key wicket of Zimbabwe captain Brendan Taylor, who made 27 off 83 balls, as well as tail-ender Chatara.
Pakistan won the first Test at the same venue by 221 runs.
Zimbabwe have only won 10 of their previous 93 Test matches, with six of the wins coming against fellow minnows Bangladesh.
But they have beaten Pakistan on two occasions, in 1994/95 and 1998/99. They have also beaten India twice, most recently in 2000/01.