All-round performance from Naib leads Afghans to historic T20I series victory

Afghanistan maintained their meteoric rise in the international cricket as they followed up their ODI series victory with a 5-wicket win to get a 2-0 victory over Zimbabwe in the T20I series. With the T20I series victory, Afghanistan have now won their first ever series in the shortest format of the game.

Afghanistan chased down a competitive total of 190 with just a ball to spare. Fifties from opener Usman Ghani and all-rounder Gulbadin Naib helped Afghanistan reach the target. Ghani scored a 45-ball 65 to start the Afghan onslaught. Naib finished things off for his team, scoring 56 off 31 balls.

Earlier, Zimbabwe won the toss and chose to bat first. They scored 190-7 in their allotted 20 overs. Sean Williams scored the joint-fastest fifty for Zimbabwe in T20Is as he scored a quickfire 54 off 26 balls. Wicketkeeper Richmond Mutumbami and captain Elton Chigumbura contributed with scores of 43 and 33 respectively.

For the Afghanistan bowlers, Dawlat Zadran was the pick of the bowlers as he picked up two wickets for 24 runs from his four overs, one of which was a maiden. Naib and Amir Hamza picked up two wickets each.

None of the Zimbabwean bowlers were able to come up with answers against the Afghan batsmen as all of them except Williams went for at least 8 runs an over.

Naib was rightly named the man of the match for his all-round performance. He batted until the end as he led his team across the finish line after picking up two wickets for 40 runs.

Afghanistan won the first T20I in a similar manner as they chased a total of 153 and won by six wickets with only five balls to spare.

Zimbabwe, who led the ODI series 2-1, were outperformed by the brilliant Afghanistan in the final two ODIs as they won their first ever ODI series 3-2.

In the backdrop of the recent earthquake that struck Afghanistan, the ODI and T20I series victories have shown the fighting spirit of the Afghans despite the tragedy back home.

Zimbabwe, however, have to analyse where they went wrong throughout the series and prepare themselves well before the ODI and T20I tour of Bangladesh which starts on November 7.

Brief Scores:

Zimbabwe 190-7 ( Williams 54, Mutumbami 43; Zadran 2-24)

Afghanistan 191-5 (Ghani 65, Naib 56; Chibhabha 2-37)

Congratulations @ACBofficials Good show !!!#ZimvAfg

— Russel Arnold (@RusselArnold69) October 28, 2015

Win% in #T20I min 10 games 62.32 SL 61.96 Pak 59.76 SAf 57.58 Afg 56.76 Neth 56.14 Ind 51.28 Aus 49.28 WI 48.19 NZ 47.37 Eng #ZimvAfg

— Mohandas Menon (@mohanstatsman) October 28, 2015