Afghanistan 286 for six (Atal 104, Malik 84, Nyamhuri 3-53) beat Zimbabwe 54 (Ghazanfar 3-9, Naveed 3-13) by 232 runs
Afghanistan’s new-ball bowlers Fazalhaq Farooqi and Azmatullah Omarzai discovered extra swing than the Zimbabwe quicks did within the morning and likewise used the variable bounce on supply to run by way of Zimbabwe. After opener Ben Curran departed for duck after a direct hit from Hashmatullah Shahidi from mid-on, Tadiwanashe Marumani, who was struggling towards swinging deliveries, fell to Farooqi’s outswinger by nicking it behind within the fifth over. Omarzai struck within the subsequent over, drawing the skin fringe of Dion Myers with an inswinger which straightened after touchdown. Atal at first slip acquired down low to finish the catch.
Within the following over, Farooqi acquired the large wicket of Zimbabwe captain Craig Ervine by inducing one other outdoors edge to Atal at slip. Offspinner AM Ghazanfar was launched after the tenth over and he struck twice in his first over to additional dent Zimbabwe, who had been clueless towards the transferring ball. Quick bowler Naveed Zadran, taking part in his third ODI, took care of the decrease order and picked up two wickets in two in his third over, seventeenth total, to complete with 3 for 9.
Earlier, the left-handed Atal transformed his maiden ODI fifty into an enormous rating and shared a 191-run opening stand with Malik to blunt Zimbabwe. With Ibrahim Zadran nonetheless recovering ankle damage and Rahmanullah Gurbaz dominated out of the sequence resulting from a quadriceps damage, the 2 inexperienced openers made probably the most of their probability. The beginning was jittery with the primary 5 boundaries coming off the sting of the bat. Nevertheless, they settled in rapidly and properly which was evident in Malik driving a pitched-up supply from Trevor Gwandu in direction of mid-on for his third 4 within the eighth over. Two overs later, Atal punched one crisply by way of level to get his timing proper on the ball. It was the beginning of Afghanistan taking cost of the sport.
The Zimbabwe seamers had been additionally wayward in patches conceding 16 further contained in the 15 overs and finally ending the innings with 40 extras.
Atal and Malik additionally discovered the boundaries commonly. Atal acquired to his fifty off 81 balls, within the twenty third over. Three overs later, Malik thumped a 4 over midwicket off Trevor Gwandu to publish his maiden half-century in 69 balls, and adopted it up with a hook over deep backward sq. leg to deliver up the primary six of the innings.
Sikandar Raza bowled eight overs in a row for 34 runs, the place he troubled the batters together with his variations however ended the spell wicketless. Atal then smashed two sixes by coming down the observe off Sean Williams to maneuver to his 80s. Zimbabwe introduced again left-armer Newman Nyamhuri within the thirty fifth over and acquired the breakthrough as he deceived Malik – who had hit 11 fours and a six in his innings – with a slower one. Malik charged right down to speed up and missed the road and size because the ball crashed onto his leg stump.
Atal saved his composure and smashed Nyamhuri for a six over deep sq. leg in his following over, although he misplaced Azmatullah Omarzai and Rahmat Shah on the different finish. He saved the scorecard ticking and introduced up his maiden hundred within the forty second over with a six over deep backward sq. leg off a brief ball from Richard Ngarava. Atal punched within the air, raised his bat, and bent right down to the bottom to mark his celebration. Nevertheless, he quickly departed after slicing a ball to deep third off Nyamhuri’s bowling.
Zimbabwe struck late with a couple of wickets and slowed Afghanistan down, however Hashmatullah Shahidi and Mohammad Nabi helped stretch the overall. That the debutant quick bowler Tinotenda Maposa, who changed Blessing Muzabarani, limped off the sphere within the sixteenth over with a loud grunt after pulling his left quadriceps did not assist Zimbabwe both.
Srinidhi Ramanujam is a sub-editor with ESPNcricinfo
