Afghanistan defeated Zimbabwe by five runs in a thrilling Twenty20 clash on Friday to follow their triumph in the one-day series.
Chasing 188 to win, Zimbabwe fell just short when Luke Jongwe, needing a six to win, was dismissed off the last ball of the match.
It was a controversial finish, however, after Afghanistan seamer Dawlat Zadran was allowed to keep bowling the final over despite having sent down two waist-high full tosses.
Photo: AFP
Jongwe was caught by Gulbadin Naib out in the deep to leave Zimbabwe on 182-7 in their 20 overs.
Malcolm Waller was the not-out batsman on 49 with two sixes and two boundaries off 37 balls. Zadran finished with 3-32 off his four overs.
Afghanistan had won the toss and chose to bat, making 187-7 in their 20 overs.
Usman Ghani top-scored with 42 off 38 balls with a six and five boundaries while man of the match Naib made 37 and Mohammad Shahzad, 33.
Veteran off-spinner Graeme Cremer returned impressive figures of 3-17.
Afghanistan skipper Asghar Stanikzai defended Zadran’s bowling, blaming the last-over beamers on the late night damp which made it difficult to hold the ball.
“It’s a funny game. The dew was too much, that’s why the two beamers,” Stanikzai told cricinfo.com. “Otherwise he’s a good bowler.”
Zimbabwe captain Elton Chigumbura said his team were not happy with some of the officials’ decisions.
“Some of the decisions, you can’t really control them, but I thought we had a good chance, obviously, if other things went our way, which I can’t mention,” he said.
The second and final match takes place at the same venue today.
In related news, celebratory gunfire killed a teenage boy in southern Afghanistan following the national team’s one-day international victory against Zimbabwe, a hospital official said.
Thousands of jubilant fans danced in the streets and fired into the air in cities and towns across the country as Afghanistan defeated Zimbabwe to take the series 3-2 on Wednesday, pushing the team into the top 10 for one-day international rankings.
A hospital official in Helmand’s provincial capital Lashkar Gah on Thursday said that a teenager “believed to be around 17 or 18 was killed in the celebratory gunfire.”
Kabul police spokesman Abdul Basir Mujahid on Friday said that at least three people had been wounded and that officials had arrested 35 people in connection with celebratory gunfire since the win.
Cricket boomed in Afghanistan after the Taliban era as many Afghans returned. The game is now played on any piece of open ground, with boys often using discarded pieces of wood for bats and wickets.
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