Zimbabwe stuns new-look Pakistan in rain-affected 1st ODI

BULAWAYO, Zimbabwe (AP) — All-rounder Sikandar Raza inspired Zimbabwe to a stunning 80-run win on the DLS method in the rain-affected first one-day international against a new-look Pakistan white-ball team on Sunday.

Raza made a crucial 39 runs and lifted Zimbabwe from a precarious 125-7 to 205 all out by sharing a 62-run eighth wicket stand with No. 9 batter Richard Ngarava, who top-scored with 48.

Under overcast conditions, Raza (2-7) picked up two wickets in one over as Pakistan limped to 60-6 in 21 overs before it rained and denied further play as Zimbabwe took a 1-0 lead in the three-match series.

Pakistan’s second-string new ball bowlers – debutant Aamer Jamal and Mohammad Hasnain – couldn’t make an impact on Zimbabwe's openers after the visitors had rested frontline pacers Shaheen Shah Afridi and Naseem Shah for the white-ball series in Zimbabwe.

Pakistan also rested its ace batter Babar Azam for the first time in an ODI since 2019 as it experimented with its bench strength ahead of next year’s Champions Trophy.

Tadiwanashe Marumani (29) flicked Jamal to square leg for a six and Joylord Gumbie (15) hit three fours against the seamers as they combined in a better than run-a-ball opening stand of 40 runs against a wayward Pakistan pace attack.

Gumbie got run out in a mix-up with Marumani in the sixth over before Pakistan came back hard through its spinners and struck at regular intervals. One of the three Pakistan debutants – left-arm wristspinner Faisal Akram took 3-24 and vice-captain Salman Ali Agha claimed 3-42 as Zimbabwe slipped to 125-7 in the 26th over.

However, Ngarava and Raza thwarted Pakistan's spinners and pacers alike in a 69-ball stand to give the total respectability. Raza perished when he tried an expansive hit against Akram and was caught on the edge of the boundary while Ngarava was the last man to get dismissed after hitting five fours and a six when he chopped Hasnain back onto his stumps.

Fast bowler Blessing Muzarabani used the home conditions to perfection and snared the early wickets of Saim Ayub (11) and Abdullah Shafique (1), who both got caught behind inside the first three overs from the tall pacer.

Kamran Ghulam (17) and skipper Mohammad Rizwan (19 not out) couldn’t pace the chase before Pakistan lost four wickets in the space of 18 runs against the spinners. Ghulam tried to break the shackles but Sean Williams (2-12) got a thick edge and earned Marumani his third catch behind the wickets before Raza had two in three balls.

Raza pinned Salman plumb leg before wicket of his second ball and one ball later Haseebullah Khan was out for zero in his ODI debut when he played the wrong line and was clean bowled.

The three-match ODI series will be followed by three T20s with Bulawayo hosting all the matches.

AP cricket: https://apnews.com/hub/cricket

Pakistan's Aamer Jamal celebrates a wicket on the first day of the ODI cricket match between Zimbabwe and Pakistan at Queens Sports Club in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe, Sunday 24 Nov 2024 (AP Photo/Wonder Mashura)

Zimbabwe's Sikandar plays a ball during the first ODI cricket match between Pakistan and Zimbabwe, in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe, Sunday, Nov. 24, 2024.(AP Wonder Mashura)

Zimbabwe's Richard Ngarava plays a ball on the first day of the ODI cricket match between Zimbabwe and Pakistan at Queens Sports Club in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe, Sunday 24 Nov 2024 (AP Photo/Wonder Mashura)

Pakistan bowler Mohammed Hasnain delivers a ball on the first day of the ODI cricket match between Zimbabwe and Pakistan at Queens Sports Club in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe, Sunday 24 Nov 2024 (AP Photo/Wonder Mashura)

Pakistan's captain Mohammad Rizwan plays a ball on the first day of the ODI cricket match between Zimbabwe and Pakistan at Queens Sports Club in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe, Sunday, Nov. 24, 2024. (AP Photo/Wonder Mashura)

Pakistan's, Kamran Ghulan, right, plays a stroke, in front of Zimbabwe's wicketkeeper Tadiwanashe Marumani, left, on the first day of the ODI cricket match between Zimbabwe and Pakistan at Queens Sports Club in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe, Sunday Nov. 24, 2024 (AP Photo/Wonder Mashura)

Zimbabwe cricket team celebrate a wicket during the first of the ODI cricket match between Zimbabwe and Pakistan at Queens Sports Club in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe, Sunday, Nov. 24, 2024. (AP Photo/Wonder Mashura)

MONTEVIDEO, Uruguay (AP) — Uruguayans went to the polls Sunday for a second round of voting to choose their next president, with the conservative governing party and the left-leaning coalition locked in a close runoff after failing to win an outright majority in last month's vote.

The staid election has turned into a hard-fought race between Álvaro Delgado, the incumbent party's candidate, and Yamandú Orsi from the Broad Front, a coalition of leftist and center-left parties that governed for 15 years until the 2019 victory of center-right President Luis Lacalle Pou. The Broad Front oversaw the legalization of abortion, same-sex marriage and the sale of marijuana in the small, laid-back South American nation of 3.4 million people.

Orsi's Broad Front took 44% of the vote while Delgado's National Party won 27% in the first round of voting Oct. 27. But the other conservative parties that make up the government coalition — in particular, the Colorado Party — notched 20% of the vote collectively, enough to give Delgado an edge over his challenger this time around.

Congress ended up evenly split in the October vote. Most polls have shown a virtual tie between Delgado and Orsi, with nearly 10% of Uruguayan voters undecided even at this late stage.

Analysts say the candidates' lackluster campaigns and broad consensus on key issues have generated extraordinary indecision and apathy in an election dominated by discussions about social spending and concerns over growing income inequality but largely free of the anti-establishment rage that has vaulted populist outsiders to power elsewhere.

“The question of whether Frente Amplio (the Broad Front) raises taxes is not an existential question, unlike what we saw in the U.S. with Trump and Kamala framing each other as threats to democracy," said Nicolás Saldías, a Latin America and Caribbean senior analyst for the London-based Economist Intelligence Unit. “That doesn't exist in Uruguay.”

Both candidates are also appealing to voter angst over a surge in violent crime that has shaken a nation long regarded as one of the region’s most safe and stable. Delgado promises tough-on-crime policies and a new maximum-security prison while Orsi advocates a community-oriented approach to crime prevention.

Delgado, 55, a rural veterinarian with a long career in the National Party, campaigned on a vow to continue the legacy of current President Lacalle Pou — in some ways making the election into a referendum on his leadership. He campaigned under the slogan “re-elect a good government."

While a string of corruption scandals briefly rattled Lacalle Pou's government last year, the president — who constitutionally cannot run for a second consecutive term — now enjoys high approval ratings and a strong economy expected to grow 3.2% this year, according to the International Monetary Fund. Inflation has also eased in recent months, boosting his coalition.

Delgado served most recently as Secretary of the Presidency for Lacalle Pou and promises to press on with his predecessor's pro-business, market-friendly policies. He would continue pursuing a prospective trade deal with China that has raised hackles in Mercosur, an alliance of South American countries that promotes regional commerce.

Orsi, 57, a former history teacher and two-time mayor from a working-class background, is widely seen as an heir to iconic former President José “Pepe” Mujica, a former Marxist guerilla who boosted Uruguay's profile as one of the region's most socially liberal and environmentally sustainable nations during his 2010-2015 term.

Mujica, now 89 and recovering from esophageal cancer, was among the first to cast his ballot after polls opened.

“When it comes to governing, with the parliamentary structure that we will have, the government will be forced to negotiate,” he told reporters as he emerged from his local polling station, praising Uruguay's robust and level-headed democracy as "no small thing" in Latin America.

While promising to forge a “new left” in Uruguay, Orsi plans no dramatic changes. He proposes tax incentives to lure investment and social security reforms that would buck the demographic trend in lowering the retirement age but fall short of a radical overhaul sought by Uruguay's unions.

The contentious plebiscite on whether to boost pension payouts failed to pass in October, with Uruguayans rejecting generous pensions in favor of fiscal constraint.

Associated Press writer Isabel DeBre in Villa Tunari, Bolivia, contributed to this report.

Uruguay's former President Jose "Pepe" Mujica votes in the presidential run-off election in Montevideo, Uruguay, Sunday, Nov. 24, 2024.(AP Photo/Natacha Pisarenko)

Yamandu Orsi, presidential candidate from the Frente Amplio (Broad Front), votes in the presidential run-off election in Canelones, Uruguay, Sunday, Nov. 24, 2024. (AP Photo/Matilde Campodonico)

Pedestrians pass by Uruguay's national flag and political party banners for sale on the day of the presidential run-off election in Montevideo, Uruguay, Sunday, Nov. 24, 2024. (AP Photo/Natacha Pisarenko)

A voter casts his ballot for the presidential run-off election in Canelones, Uruguay, Sunday, Nov. 24, 2024. (AP Photo/Matilde Campodonico)

A ray of light illuminates a poster of Frente Amplio presidential candidate Yamandu Orsi on a street wall covered in ads ahead of the presidential run-off election in Montevideo, Uruguay, Friday, Nov. 22, 2024. (AP Photo/Natacha Pisarenko)

A poster of Alvaro Delgado, presidential candidate for the ruling National Party, covers a building ahead of the presidential run-off election in Montevideo, Uruguay, Friday, Nov. 22, 2024. (AP Photo/Natacha Pisarenko)

Supporters of Alvaro Delgado, presidential candidate for the ruling National Party, attend his closing rally ahead of the presidential run-off election in Montevideo, Uruguay, Wednesday, Nov. 20, 2024. (AP Photo/Santiago Mazzarovich)

Alvaro Delgado, presidential candidate for the ruling National Party, holds his closing rally ahead of the presidential run-off election in Montevideo, Uruguay, Wednesday, Nov. 20, 2024. (AP Photo/Santiago Mazzarovich)

Children hold up masks of Frente Amplio presidential candidate Yamandu Orsi as they wait for the start of his closing rally ahead of the presidential run-off election in Las Piedras, Uruguay, Wednesday, Nov. 20, 2024. (AP Photo/Matilde Campodonico)

Frente Amplio presidential candidate Yamandu Orsi holds his closing rally ahead of the presidential run-off election in Las Piedras, Uruguay, Wednesday, Nov. 20, 2024. (AP Photo/Matilde Campodonico)

Supporters of Broad Front coalition presidential candidate Yamandu Orsi campaign one day ahead of the presidential run-off election, in Montevideo, Uruguay, Saturday, Nov. 23, 2024. (AP Photo/Natacha Pisarenko)

FILE - This photo combo shows presidential frontrunner Yamandu Orsi, left, of the Broad Front coalition, on Oct. 22, 2024, and opponent, National Party candidate Alvaro Delgado, on Nov. 20, 2024, both in Montevideo, Uruguay. (AP Photo Matilde Campodonico, left; and AP Photo Santiago Mazzarovich, File)