
Zimbabwe Confirmed victory by 4 Wickets at the last ball of the Match in 1st T20, against Afghanistan at Harare.
Zimbabwe took the lead by 1-0 in the three T20 Matches series against Afghanistan. Afghanistan won the toss and elected to Bat First. Their opening pair went to Pavilion early. Rahmanullah Gurbaz was out on Duck and Sediqullah Atal lost his wicket on 3 runs. Richard Ngarava through a good-length bowl sent Mohammad Ishaq to the pavilion. Ngarava has taken his 2nd Wicket. At that time Afghanistan was looking Trouble. One down batsman, Hazratullah Zazai contributed 20 runs, including three boundaries, and was then dismissed by Blessing Muzarabani.
Afghanistan slipped further as their upper-order batsmen failed to glitter the Scoreboard. Karim Janat was struggling and due to that Azmatullah Omarzai looked to take the risk. He seems to go over long-on but mistimes it and is taken there. Bowling all-rounder, Karim Janat smashed a fifty, including 5 fours. His strike rate was not as good as it should have been, but he gave a quite good inning to Afghanistan in a Critical situation. He remained not out throughout the inning. Muhammad Nabi played a nice inning, 44 off 27 Ball faced, including five 4s and one 6s. Afg made 144-6 in 20 overs.
Zimbabwe had to chase 144 in 20 overs. Early in 3rd over Afg gets their first wicket. Naveen-ul-Haq struck and dismissed their opening batter Tadiwanashe Marumani. Brian Bennett played a quite good inning 49 (49), including five 4s. A 75-run partnership between Dion Myers and Bennett pushed Zimbabwe to win. Muhammad Nabi came into action and broke the Partnership between them, as he sent Myers to Pavilion. Naveen-ul-Haq picked up three wickets while Rashid Khan got two and Muhammad Nabi got one.
Tashinga Musekiwa smashed 11 runs and hit the last ball towards the boundary, finalizing Zimbabwe’s win.
It was Zimbabwe’s 2nd-ever Victory in a T20I against Afghanistan. The second match of the T20 series will be played in Harare on Friday, 13 Dec.
Brian Bennett is Chosen as the Player of the Match.