HARARE, DEC 12: Tashinga Musekiwa struck 11 runs off the final over on Wednesday to give Zimbabwe their second-ever victory against Afghanistan in a T20 international.
After hitting 10 runs off five balls, including a four, to tie the scores in the first of a three-match series, he claimed one run from the final ball bowled by Azmatullah Omarzai for a dramatic win.
Batting at No. 7, Musekiwa (16) lifted Zimbabwe to 145-6 off 20 overs, and a four-wicket triumph, after Afghanistan won the toss and posted 144-6 at Harare Sports Club.
"It is always nice to contribute to a win. Credit to Musekiwa at the end," said top Zimbabwe scorer and player-of-the-match Brian Bennett, who made 49.
"It was nice to bat with Dion (Myers). We were thinking if we could keep up with the run rate we had a good chance of success."
Afghanistan captain Rashid Khan said: "We wanted to get a good total on the board, but finished about 20 runs short of where we would have liked to be.
"We gave away so many wickets early on and in Twenty20 matches it is difficult to fight back. We could also have bowled better."
The rare T20 triumph for Zimbabwe over Afghanistan came five years ago after their only other victory in Bangladesh port city Chittagong.
In a seesaw opening match of eight in an all-format tour, Afghanistan recovered from losing five wickets for 58 runs to post a defendable total. —AFP
