Afg v Zim 2nd T20I Review: Shahzad's ton helps Afghans seal the series

Afghanistan registered yet another series win against Zimbabwe after a huge 81-run win at Sharjah in the 2nd of the two T20 International match series between the two sides. Afghanistan put on a mammoth score thanks to a record-breaking ton from Mohammad Shahzad. Zimbabwe never looked like chasing the huge total and could only play for reducing the margin.

Zimbabwe elected to bowl first after winning the toss. However, their decision proved out to a costly one for them very soon. With a six off Chisoro, Mohammad Shahzad became the 1st Associate nation player to complete 1000 runs in T20I format, the first record he broke out of the many during his innings. He kept racing the scoreboard with boundaries as Afghanistan didn’t lose a wicket in the powerplay and scored 43 runs with Shahzad scoring 35.

Stanikzai joined Shahzad after Ghani’s departure and Zimbabwe started to face threats from both the ends from now. Shahzad brought up his fifty in 30 balls with his team score reading just 59. Afghanistan score moved into 3 figure mark by the 11th over with Shahzad scoring 83 by then. On the other end, Stanikzai and Karim Sadiq fell cheaply trying score quick. However, Shahzad brought up his ton in 52 balls during the 14th over of his team’s innings. Later Nabi chipped in with a sparkling 22 while Shahzad played throughout Afghanistan innings.

Afghanistan finished on 215/6, their highest total in T20Is and on the other hand, Mohammad Shahzad remained unbeaten on 118, the highest individual score in T20Is by an associate nation player.

Chasing 216 runs to level the series, Zimbabwe lost early wickets. Amir Hamza struck twice in 4th over as Zimbabwe were reduced to 18/3. Hamilton Masakadza tried to keep his side in the game but poor display from other end saw them losing half the side by the 6th over with only 34 runs on the board. Masakadza and Peter Moor chipped in with a couple of boundaries and rebuilt their innings. They both shared a stand of 77 runs for the 6th wicket in 56 balls before Moor departed after scoring 35.

Masakadza brought up his fifty in 38 balls. Soon after Moor’s departure, Hamilton had to return back to the pavilion being trapped in front by Rashid Khan after scoring 63 off just 44 balls with 5 sixes. Zimbabwe couldn’t even play out the full 20 overs as they were bundled out for 134 in the 19th over, 82 runs short of the target set by Afghanistan.

Brief Scores:

Afghanistan: 215/6 in 20 overs (M Shahzad 118*, M Nabi 22; TS Chisoro 1/25)

Zimbabwe: 134/10 in 18.1 overs (H Masakadza 63, PJ Moor 35; A Hamza 2/15, D Zadran 2/21, S Shirzad 2/31)