Zimbabwe sealed a last-ball thriller on Wednesday (December 11) at the Harare Sports Club to stun Afghanistan and win the T20I series opener by four wickets.
Batting allrounder Brian Bennett was the star for Zimbabwe as he chipped in with a run-a-ball 49 to help them chase down 145 inside 20 overs. Bennett was awarded the Player of the Match (POTM) for his superb performance.
Earlier in the game, Afghanistan skipper Rashid Khan won the toss without hesitation and chose to bat first. The decision backfired when the tourists lost Rahmanullah Gurbaz for a three-ball duck in the first over.
16 balls later, Afghanistan lost their other opener, Sediqullah Atal for 3. Their misery continued as they lost Mohammad Ishaq and Hazratullah Zazai inside the powerplay. Allrounders Karim Janat and Azmatullah Omarzai stitched 25 runs for the fifth wicket before Wellington Masakadza dismissed Omarzai on the fourth delivery of the 11th over for 13.
Janat then joined hands with Mohammad Nabi (44 off 27 balls) and scripted a rescue act for Afghanistan. The duo added 79 runs for the sixth wicket and bailed the visitors out of crisis. Janat remained unbeaten right till the end and scored 54 off 49 deliveries with the help of five fours at a strike rate of 110.20.
Nabi accumulated his runs at a strike rate of 162.96 and struck five fours and a maximum during the course of his innings. Janat and Nabi's joint effort propelled Afghanistan to 144 for the loss of six wickets in their allotted quota of overs.
Left-arm speedster Richard Ngarava was the pick of all the Zimbabwe bowlers as he returned figures of 3/28 in his four overs.
The Chevrons also lost one of their openers (Tadiwanashe Marumani) early as Naveen-ul-Haq cleaned him up for nine on the last delivery of the third over. However, the pair of Bennett and Dion Myers added 75 runs for the second wicket and laid the foundation of the run chase.
Bennett played sensibly and was dismissed one shy of a half-century. On the other hand, Myers scored 32 off 29 balls with the help of two fours and a six.
Tashinga Musekiwa (16* off 13 balls) and Masakadza (6* off 2 balls) chipped in with some really handy lower-order runs and scored 11 off the last over against Omarzai to take their team over the line.
