HARARE – On Monday, here in HARARE, Ibrahim Zadran scored his first one-day international century and shared the highest second-wicket stand against Zimbabwe with Rahmat Shah, which was 195 runs. These two batsmen helped Afghanistan chase down 229 runs and win the series, even though they still had one game left to play. This victory puts Afghanistan in second place on the points table and puts them in an excellent position to achieve automatic qualifying for the 2023 World Cup if they sweep the series and win 3-0 on Thursday.
Afghanistan now have 90 points after 11 matches played in the World Cup Super League. Zimbabwe, on the other hand, is still in 12th position despite having three victories out of a total of 14 matches played. In the first encounter, the 60-run difference between Zimbabwe and Afghanistan underlined Zimbabwe’s issues while chasing, whilst in this one, the eight-wicket differential highlighted Zimbabwe’s batting problems in general. Even when they are attempting to establish a total, Zimbabwe seems to be missing a few of great batters, and they have not been able to form large partnerships.
In this particular game, Innocent Kaia and Ryan Burl each scored fifty runs to bookend their team’s innings, but they only had one partnership that was over fifty runs, and two others that threatened but were stopped before they could give Afghanistan considerable difficulty. After Regis Chakabva was run out for a duck off the first ball he faced, Kaia and Craig Ervine put up 47 for the second wicket, which was followed by Kaia and Sikandar Raza posting 67 for the fourth-wicket partnership. Before Burl and Blessing Muzarabani exchanged 46 for the ninth wicket to put Zimbabwe’s score into competitive area, the middle order collapsed, with in 5 wickets falling in 26 runs, leaving Zimbabwe with a score lower than 200. In just his second One-Day International, Kaia scored a career-high 63 runs and showed off an impressive array of strokes all over the field. Although the hallmark of his innings was his aggressive attitude against spin and good footwork, it also turned out to be the cause of his downfall. He had everything under control as he moved down the track against left-armer Fareed Ahmed, but Ahmed spotted him coming and cut the ball short. Kaia played a top-edge shot, and Rahmanullah Gurbaz made a spectacular catch to finish his innings.
A chain reaction was started by that wicket. Milton Shumba made an attempt to play a longer delivery from Fareed off the back foot, but he missed and was given out lbw on review. Two overs after that, Raza made an attempt to cut Mohammed Nabi over short third-man, but he hit the ball straight to him. After taking the wicket of Wesley Madhevere in the first over of his bowling spell and Tendai Chatara being caught at extra cover while attempting to smash Nabi over the top, Donald Tiripano gave the legspinner Rashid Khan his second wicket when he played Rashid Khan onto his stumps. When they were on 177 for 8, Zimbabwe were in a precarious situation, but an adventurous stand between Burl and Muzarabani ensured that they batted through the overs and raised the ante at the finish.
In the end, it was not enough to concern the Afghan line-up, which easily batted away a little target with few barriers in its path. They scored 17 runs in the first two overs of the game when Gurbaz was given out leg before wicket by a ball from Blessing Muzarabani that snuck in. He made an effort but was not successful. Ibrahim and Rahmat were able to easily rotate strike since there was practically little pressure coming from the Zimbabwean attack, and they had the needed run rate well under control. After facing 120 balls, Ibrahim reached his century with a magnificent cover drive off the 120th ball. Rahmat might have followed, but with 18 runs yet to be scored, he pursued a wide ball and nicked off, which caused him to be out for 88. The winning runs for Afghanistan were struck by Ibrahim with 33 balls left in the game.
SCOREBOARD
ZIMBABWE INNINGS
Regis Chakabva lbw b Fazalhaq 0
Innocent Kaia c Gurbaz b Fareed 63
Craig Ervine lbw b Fareed 32
Wessley Madhevere lbw b Rashid 15
Sikandar Raza c Rahmat b Nabi 40
Milton Shumba lbw b Fareed 1
Ryan Burl not out 51
Donald Tiripano b Rashid 5
Tendai Chatara c Fareed b Nabi 0
Blessing Muzarabani b Fazalhaq 9
Tanaka Chivanga run out 1
EXTRAS (B 1, LB 1, W 9) 11
TOTAL (50 overs) 228
FALL OF WICKETS: 1-0, 2-47, 3-84, 4-151, 5-153,
6-168) 7-176, 8-177, 9-223, 10-228
BOWLING
Fazalhaq Farooqi 8-1-34-2
Mujeeb Ur Rahman 6-0-24-0
Fareed Ahmad 10-0-56-3
Azmatullah Omarzai 7-0-25-0
Mohammad Nabi 9-0-31-2
Rashid Khan 10-0-56-2
AFGHANISTAN INNINGS
Rahmanullah Gurbaz lbw b Muzarabani 4
Ibrahim Zadran not out 120
Rahmat Shah c Chakabva b Tiripano 88
Hashmatullah Shahidi not out 1
Did not bat: Najibullah Zadran, Mohammad Nabi, Azmatullah Omarzai, Rashid Khan, Mujeeb Ur Rahman, Fazalhaq Farooqi and Fareed Ahmad
EXTRAS (B 2, LB 2, W 12) 16
TOTAL (44.3 overs) 229-2
Fall of wickets: 1-17 (Rahmanullah Gurbaz, 2.3 ov), 2-212 (Rahmat Shah, 41.3 ov)
BOWLING
Blessing Muzarabani 8-0-42-1
Tendai Chatara 6.3-0-36-0
Tanaka Chivanga 8-0-34-0
Ryan Burl 5-0-30-0
Sikandar Raza 6-0-25-0
Donald Tiripano 6-0-32-1
Milton Shumba 2-0-15-0
Wessley Madhevere 3-0-11-0
Umpires: Iknow Chabi, Marais Erasmus
TV umpire: Langton Rusere
Match referee: Andy Pycroft
