Zimbabwe opener Sikandar Raza made sure his first one-day international century was a memorable one as he smashed seven sixes in his 141 to power the home team to an eight-wicket win and a 2-0 series lead over Afghanistan on Sunday.
Raza was part of a record 224-run opening partnership with Hamilton Masakadza, as Zimbabwe chased down Afghanistan’s total of 256-7 with ease for a 2-0 lead in the four-match series.
Masakadza made 93 as Zimbabwe cruised to 257-2 in 43.3 overs. The opening partnership was the highest for any wicket for Zimbabwe in ODIs.
Photo: AFP
Raza faced just 133 deliveries and added 11 fours to his string of sixes as he punished Afghanistan’s bowling at the Queens Sports Club.
Afghanistan had been hopeful of leveling the series after 17-year-old Usman Ghani — opening the batting for the visitors — made his first international century. However, Ghani’s 118 was the only major contribution for Afghanistan, with the next highest score 23 not out from tailender Gulbadin Naib.
Raza’s outstanding day began with him taking 2-25 off five overs after Zimbabwe opted to bowl first. Masakadza and Tinashe Panyangara also picked up two wickets each as Afghanistan could not build on the early platform laid by Ghani.
Photo: AFP
Raza and Masakadza tore into the bowling in Zimbabwe’s chase, with Masakadza hitting 10 fours and a six. The pair stayed together for more than 36 overs and scored at more than six runs an over to leave captain Brendan Taylor (11 not out) and Sean Williams (2 not out) to complete the easy victory with 39 deliveries to spare.
Raza almost batted through the innings, only falling the ball before Zimbabwe secured victory and at least a draw in the series.
Afghanistan are playing their first one-day series against a Test-playing nation. The entire series will be contested at Bulawayo, with the remaining two games scheduled for today and Thursday.
Revelations of positive doping tests for nearly two dozen Chinese swimmers that went unpunished sparked an intense flurry of accusations and legal threats between the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the head of the US drug-fighting organization, who has long been one of WADA’s fiercest critics. WADA on Saturday said it was turning to legal counsel to address a statement released by US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) CEO Travis Tygart, who said WADA and anti-doping authorities in China swept positive tests “under the carpet by failing to fairly and evenly follow the global rules that apply to everyone else in the world.” The
Taiwanese judoka Yang Yung-wei on Saturday won silver in the men’s under-60kg category at the Asian Judo Championships in Hong Kong. Nicknamed the “judo heartthrob” in Taiwan, the Olympic silver-medalist missed out on his first Asian Championships gold when he lost to Japanese judoka Taiki Nakamura in the finals. Yang defeated three opponents on Saturday to reach the final after receiving a bye through the round of 32. He first topped Laotian Soukphaxay Sithisane in the round of 16 with two seoi nage (over-the-shoulder throws), then ousted Indian Vijay Kumar Yadav in the quarter-finals with his signature ude hishigi sankaku gatame (triangular armlock). He
RALLY: It was only the second time the Taiwanese has partnered with Kudermetova, and the match seemed tight until they won seven points in a row to take the last set 10-2 Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching and Russia’s Veronika Kudermetova on Sunday won the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix women’s doubles final in Stuttgart, Germany. The pair defeated Norway’s Ulrikke Eikeri and Estonia’s Ingrid Neel 4-6, 6-3, 10-2 in a tightly contested match at the WTA 500 tournament. Chan and Kudermetova fell 4-6 in the first set after having their serve broken three times, although they played increasingly well. They fought back in the second set and managed to break their opponents’ serve in the eighth game to triumph 6-3. In the tiebreaker, Chan and Kudermetova took a 3-0 lead before their opponents clawed back two points, but
Taiwanese gymnast Lee Chih-kai failed to secure an Olympic berth in the pommel horse following a second-place finish at the last qualifier in Doha on Friday, a performance that Lee and his coach called “unconvincing.” The Tokyo Olympics silver medalist finished runner-up in the final after scoring 6.6 for degree of difficulty and 8.800 for execution for a combined score of 15.400. That was just 0.100 short of Jordan’s Ahmad Abu Al Soud, who had qualified for the event in Paris before the Apparatus World Cup series in Qatar’s capital. After missing the final rounds in the first two of four qualifier