Afghanistan 286 for 6 (Atal 104, Malik 84, Nyamhuri 3-53) beat Zimbabwe 54 (Ghazanfar 3-9, Naveed 3-13) by 232 runs
Afghanistan’s new-ball bowlers Fazalhaq Farooqi and Azmatullah Omarzai found more swing than the Zimbabwe quicks did in the morning and also used the variable bounce on offer to run through Zimbabwe. After opener Ben Curran departed for duck after a direct hit from Hashmatullah Shahidi from mid-on, Tadiwanashe Marumani, who was struggling against swinging deliveries, fell to Farooqi’s outswinger by nicking it behind in the fifth over. Omarzai struck in the next over, drawing the outside edge of Dion Myers with an inswinger which straightened after landing. Atal at first slip got down low to complete the catch.
In the following over, Farooqi got the big wicket of Zimbabwe captain Craig Ervine by inducing another outside edge to Atal at slip. Offspinner AM Ghazanfar was introduced after the tenth over and he struck twice in his first over to further dent Zimbabwe, who were clueless against the moving ball. Fast bowler Naveed Zadran, playing his third ODI, took care of the lower order and picked up two wickets in two in his third over, 17th overall, to finish with 3 for 9.
Earlier, the left-handed Atal converted his maiden ODI fifty into a big score and shared a 191-run opening stand with Malik to blunt Zimbabwe. With Ibrahim Zadran still recovering ankle injury and Rahmanullah Gurbaz ruled out of the series due to a quadriceps injury, the two inexperienced openers made the most of their chance. The start was jittery with the first five boundaries coming off the edge of the bat. However, they settled in quickly and nicely which was evident in Malik driving a pitched-up delivery from Trevor Gwandu towards mid-on for his third four in the eighth over. Two overs later, Atal punched one crisply through point to get his timing right on the ball. It was the start of Afghanistan taking charge of the game.
The Zimbabwe seamers were good in patches, but they were also wayward on numerous occasions, conceding 16 extra inside the 15 overs and eventually ending the innings with 40 extras.
