afghanistan 153 for 6 wickets (Rasauli 58, Umarzai 28, Burl 2-16, Gwandu 2-29) defeated zimbabwe 103 (Raza 35, Naveen 3-19, Rashid 3-20, Mujeeb 2-30) by 50 runs
Afghanistan faltered once again in the powerplay
Afghanistan’s top order failed to perform well for the second consecutive game; He lost three wickets in the space of nine balls and scored 41 for 3 in the powerplay – a marginal improvement from his 34 for 4 in the first T20I.
Rahmanullah Gurbaz hit a four through square in the first over, while Sediqullah Atal hit two fours through the off side to Blessing Muzarabani in the second over.
But Trevor Gwandu made an immediate impact, spooning Gurbaz at mid-off with his very first ball. Two balls later, Zubaid Akbari was run out while trying to take a single at backward point, which was not there.
Atal tried to maintain Afghanistan’s momentum, pulling Muzarabani in front of square and hitting his third four off the seamer’s bowling, but Muzarabani had the last laugh as he had Atal caught at cover point on the next ball.
Afghanistan could have lost the fourth wicket in the powerplay due to another error, but Azmatullah Omarzai survived. Rasuli hit a pickup shot behind Gwandu’s square off, and then lofted it to Wellington Masakadza at extra cover without fielding restrictions in the first over.
Burl pushed Afghanistan back with double strike
Umarzai, who took some time to settle down, hit Sikandar Raza’s half-tracker over midwicket for his first six of the match in the tenth over.
He then hit another six down the ground in the next over, but missed Ryan Burl while trying to hit it in the same areas. Brian Bennett took an excellent catch from long-on running to his left, held it high and threw it up before taking a step outside the boundary line and coming back to complete the catch.
In his next over, Burl left one short and Nabi missed a pull to the left of deep midwicket and Wesley Madhevere held back a scream with all his might. Now half of Afghanistan was back in the hut.
Rasooli gave Afghanistan a late lead
Rasuli again slapped Gwandu to mid-off in the next over before going down the ground after Burl almost pulled off another superb parry-grab to the boundary, but replays showed he mistimed it across the boundary line. Had contacted the ground.
Naib then hit a four off Raza as Afghanistan collected 22 runs in two overs after Nabi’s wicket.
The best was yet to come. In the final over, Rasuli hit three consecutive fours off Ngarawa and completed his maiden T20I half-century in the process. There were 17 runs in the over and Afghanistan had a target of 150 runs. Gwandu dismissed him in the final over and conceded only six runs, restricting Zimbabwe’s target to 154.
Umarzai, Naveen gave initial shocks
Zimbabwe started to build momentum from the second over of the chase, with both openers hitting Mujeeb for a four each, before Bennett sent Naveen over deep midwicket for six.
But soon Naveen saw Tadivanashe Marumani coming down the track and pulled his length back and the batsman edged it to deep backward point.
Umarzai bowled another short ball, which was caught by Dion Myers at deep backward square.
Mujib derails Zimbabwe’s target
Mujeeb came back into the attack soon after the powerplay and hit a drive straight to Madhevere at short cover.
In his next over, he bamboozled Bennett as he got a chance to edge out his outside edge and clip the off bail.
Rashid then joined in the fun when he trapped Burl in front while attempting a sweep and Zimbabwe were in trouble at 57 for 5.
Naveen, Rashid finished the game
Tashinga Musekiwa, who hit the winning run on the last ball of the first T20I, took on Mujeeb in his final over, driving him through extra cover and launching him at long-on on consecutive balls.
But Musekiwa’s counter-attack was short-lived; Naveen bowled him out quickly in the next over and he dropped an easy catch to cover.
Then Rashid struck twice in one over and the game was over.
Naveen got Raza caught at deep midwicket in the 17th over and in the next over, Farid Malik ended the matter by dismissing Muzarabani.
Abhimanyu Bose is a sub-editor at ESPNcricinfo
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