Zimbabwe restricts Afghans to 155-8 in Masakadza’s farwell match
Image: BCB
||CF Correspondent||
Opener Rahmanullah Gurbaz clubbed his maiden half-century as Afghanistan compiled 155-8 against Zimbabwe in their third match of the Tri-nation T20 series on Friday at the Zahur Ahmed Chowdhury Stadium.
In a match that was just an academic interest following Zimbabwe’s elimination from the final race, Gurbaz smashed a 47 ball-61, clobbering four fours and as many sixes to give Afghanistan the solid platform.
But Zimbabwe came back strongly in the match half-way through innings with a flurry of wickets when it appeared that Afghans would end up scoring closer to 200.Gurbaz and Hazratullah Zazai combined for an 83-run partnership in just 9.3 overs to indicate a big score.
Zazai scored 31 off 24 before Tinotenda Mutumbodzi had him caught by Richmond Mutumbami to give the side a much-needed breakthrough.
Mutumbodzi then bowled in a disciplined way to stifle the Afghans power-packed batting line up.
But Gurbaz continued his onslaught. It needed an excellent bowling from Sean Williams to rattle his stump and subsequently curbed the aggression of the Afghans batsman.Christopher Mpofu then sliced out the Afghans middle order in a show of excellent bowling and finally ended with his career-best 4-30.
Afghanistan batsmen however didn’t help their cause by playing a forced shot when the pitch was getting slower considerably.
Shafiqullah Shafiq was the other notable scorer with 16 while debutant Fazal Niazai scored 12.Apart from Mpofu’s four-for, Mutumbodzi ended with 2-18, also his career-best bowling.
The match is the last International match of Zimbabwe captain Hamilton Masakadza. Zimbabwe is eying to give him fitting farewell alongside trying to end the eight-match losing streak against Afghanistan
