Afghanistan vs Zimbabwe 2021, 2nd T20I: Afghanistan Secure Series After Another Dominant Victory

Afghanistan have secured the three-match T20I series against Zimbabwe after claiming another big victory in the second game of this series as this time they won by 45 runs. With this victory, Afghanistan are leading this T20I series by 2-0 with one to go.

Afghanistan captain Asghar Afghan won the toss and chose to bat first. While they scored 193/5 (20 overs) in the first innings, Zimbabwe were all out for 148 runs in 17.1 overs.

Afghanistan vs Zimbabwe 2021, 2nd T20I

2nd innings (Zimbabwe): Late fights couldn’t help Chevrons to save this series

Naveen-ul-Haq started the second innings with a wicket on the very first ball of that innings as the opener Tinashe Kamunhukamwe scored a golden duck.

Zimbabwe lost their first five wickets inside the first seven overs as they were struggling on 56/5, where opening batsman Tarisai Musakanda (22) and Sikandar Raza (15) scored double-digit runs among the top five batsmen.

Then Richmond Mutumbami and Ryan Burl put the 62 runs partnership for the sixth wicket. Mohammad Nabi later broke that partnership after dismissing Mutumbami for 21 runs. While Burl scored 40 runs off 29 balls (only four and 3 sixes), Donald Tiripano scored 24 runs off 14 balls (3 fours and only six), but those were not enough for the Zimbabwe side.

While all the six Afghanistan bowlers took at least one wicket, Rashid Khan (3/30) got three wickets while Naveen-ul-Haq (2/28) and Mohammad Nabi (2/20) picked up two wickets each.

1st innings (Afghanistan): Mohammad Nabi played a windy knock after Usman Ghani and Karim Janat’s century partnership

Richard Ngarava provided the early breakthrough by dismissing the last match hero Rahmanullah Gurbaz (9) on the eighth ball of the match. However, another opener Usman Ghani and Karim Janat handled the powerplay situation very well as their batting helped Afghanistan to score 49/1 at the end of the powerplay. They had the 102 runs partnership for the second wicket.

On the final ball of the 12th over, Donald Tiripano broke that partnership by taking the wicket of Ghani, who scored 49 runs off 34 balls (5 fours and 2 sixes). On the next ball, Karim Janat completed his fifty in 31 balls. Janat was bowled by Ryan Burl in the 15th over after scoring 53 off 38 balls (3 fours and 4 sixes).

Then Mohammad Nabi played a furious knock of 40 off just 15 balls (2 fours and 4 sixes) that helped Afghanistan to manage another 190+ total in the first innings.

Blessing Muzarabani was the only Zimbabwe bowler who got two wickets in that innings as he had bowling figures of 4-0-44-2.

Brief Scores: Afghanistan – 193/5 in 20 overs (Karim Janat 53, Usman Ghani 49; Blessing Muzarabani 2/44)

Zimbabwe – 148 in 17.1 overs (Ryan Burl 40, Donald Tiripano 24; Rashid Khan 3/30)

Result – Afghanistan won by 45 runs