Whirlwind Zadran powers Afghans to facile victory over Zimbabwe
Photo: Cricfrenzy
|| CF Correspondent ||
Najibullah Zadran smashed a blistering 30 ball-69 not out as Afghanistan recorded a comprehensive 28-run win over Zimbabwe in their Tri-nation T20 series opener at the Sher-e-Bangla National Cricket Stadium on Saturday.
Zadran’s six-fest innings was key in helping Afghans to rack up a mammoth 197-5, which was too much to handle for Zimbabwe.
The Southern African nation finally was restricted to 169-7 to concede their second straight defeat in the tournament. They tasted a three-wicket defeat to Bangladesh in the first match.
Despite conceding a defeat, they at least gave Bangladesh a run for money. But that was not the case against Afghanistan.
Zadran and Mohammad Nabi combined for Afghan’s record 107 off just 40 balls in six-laden fifth wicket partnership to take the side in strong position.
During their partnership, they struck 10 sixes between them.
Nabi struck four sixes in his 18 ball-38 before being out in the last ball of the innings.
His dismissal ended Afghan’s hope to go past 200 runs mark.
Zadran clobbered five fours and sixes in his 30 ball-69 as Afghanistan scored 88 runs in the last five overs.
Opener Rahmanullah Gurbaz began the carnage after Zimbabwe sent Afghanistan to bat in the surface that was absolutely placid.
Gurbaz struck a 24 ball-43, hitting five fours and two sixes as Afghanistan smacked 58 runs in the first powerplay.
Zimbabwe came back strongly in the match with a flurry of wickets that saw them reduced Afghans to 90-4 in 14th over.
However Nabi and Zadran didn’t look back when they came together in the crease and left Zimbabwe to chase a huge total.
Tendai Chatara and Sean Williams took two wickets apiece for Zimbabwe.
Brendan Taylor seemed to have in the mood to whack everything coming to him as Zimbabwe came up to bat in pursuit of huge total.
When he tore apart Afghans bowling, skipper Hamilton Masakadza was trapped run-out for 3, to disrupt the start and it seemed to have made an adverse impact on Taylor.
Pacer Fareed Malik dismissed Taylor after he hit 16 ball-27 with three fours and two sixes.
Fareed then strangled Zimbabwe innings before skipper Rashid Khan came into the action. The Afghan skipper sparked the collapse with his wily leg-spin and Zimbabwe started losing wickets at regular interval, which confirmed their defeat long before the match was ended.
Regis Chakabva was the highest scorer for Zimbabwe with 20 ball-41 not out while Ryan Burl scored run-a-ball-25.
Fareed Malik and Rashid Khan scalped two wickets apiece.
