Zimbabwe not able to read me: Yasir

HARARE: Pakistan’s Yasir Shah credited a helpful pitch, his control and the Zimbabweans’ inability to read his variations for his success in their first ODI here on Thursday.
He grabbed six wickets for 26, a performance that fetched him man-of-the-match award.
“My plan was very simple: just to bowl wicket-to-wicket and control my line and length, because this was my first game on this tour,” Yasir told reporters.
“That worked for me. The first thing was for me to control my line and length. In between that, there are varieties. I think the Zimbabwean batsmen weren’t able to read my variations when I was bowling googlies or flippers or legbreaks, and that was troubling them a lot.”
Yasir’s figures were the second best by a Pakistan spinner in ODIs, and the best ever by a spinner in Zimbabwe, but he humbly suggested that there were greater heights to be scaled.
“I just try my level best whenever I play. It doesn’t matter what the result is in the end, good or bad, I’ll keep making the effort because when I started playing cricket I never thought that this was going to happen. I’ll definitely keep trying to be better,” said Yasir who made his debut in Zimbabwe four years ago but has so far played only 11 ODIs.
His first international wickets were Vusi Sibanda and Tatenda Taibu in the third ODI of the series in 2011.
Yasir said he was finding the spin-friendly conditions on this trip much more to his liking.
“Four years ago when I played over here, the conditions were very different,” he said.
“The pitches favoured the batsmen more. But now I feel that there’s much more assistance for the bowlers. The ball is spinning and it doesn’t come onto the bat as comfortably as it did before,” he added.