Ghani, Naib give Afghanistan landmark win

But Gulbadin Naib (56 off 31 balls) slammed a maiden T20I half-century off just 28 balls and reduced the equation to a more manageable nine off six balls and eventually took his team home in collaboration with Shafiqullah to add another feather to Afghanistan’s cap.

Unlike Afghanistan, Zimbabwe was rocked early when it lost Chibhabha on the second ball. Sikander Raza hit a few boundaries, but a short ball from Naib led to his downfall on 21.

Sean Williams, however, was in no mood to slow down. Alternating between the reverse sweep and the slog sweep, Williams hit a flurry of boundaries, racing to the joint-fastest T20I half-century by a Zimbabwe player, off just 21 balls.

But Afghanistan brought back Rashid Khan, who was spanked for 19 runs off his first over, and the leg-spinner struck gold, removing Williams for 54 off 26 balls.

Afghanistan did its best to limit the damage that Williams had caused with a few tidy overs, but Richmond Mutumbami (43 off 33 balls) remained firm.

Dawlat Zadran (2 for 24), Naib (2 for 40) and Amir Hamza (2 for 26) were the main wicket-takers for Afghanistan, and though Zimbabwe managed to add 45 runs for the loss of three wickets in the last five overs, Afghanistan was just too good for it on the day.

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